Create feature class with desired fields using ArcPy?

Question

When you create a feature class through ArcCatalog you get a handy menu that lets you assign fields.

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I'm wondering if there isn't an arcpy equivalent. There's no arguments for it in the Create Feature Class tool.

I thought maybe a field info object would do it, placed in the template variable, but this failed. I then realized that field info fields don't indicate field type or most any other field properties, so this should not have been a surprise.

>>> fi = arcpy.FieldInfo ()
>>> fi.addField ("TestField", "TestField", "VISIBLE", "NONE")
>>> arcpy.CreateFeatureclass_management (outLoc, outName, "POLYGON", fi)
Runtime error 
Traceback (most recent call last):
 File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
 File "c:\program files (x86)\arcgis\desktop10.4\arcpy\arcpy\management.py", line 1806, in CreateFeatureclass
 raise e
RuntimeError: Object: Error in executing tool
>>> 

Currently I add each field one at a time after creating the feature class, but I'm thinking adding the fields at the time of feature class creation would be more efficient.

• FelixIP: Use fieldinfo when creating layer from feature class.
• Vince: The real cost of AddField is when rows exist. That said, I use SQL to CREATE TABLE the use that table as a template in Create Feature Class. Creating an empty table and adding fields is yet another option.
• Michael Stimson: You have the option of a template feature class when using CreateFeatureClass or you could create an XML workspace document and import that instead of creating a feature class resources.arcgis.com/en/help/main/10.2/index.html#//…. In reality the penalty of adding a field to a new empty feature class should be fairly small... The ArcObjects method would run faster but is many times more tedious than arcpy.

Answer 1

I think the performance penalty of using AddField to add each field is small enough to make the functionality you seek be unnecessary.

At times in the past I know I have played with creating an empty table with the fields, when I know I want to add the same fields frequently, and used JoinField to add them in one step.

I also messed around with numpy.array and arcpy.da.ExtendTable at Creating numpy.array with variable number of fields to test arcpy.da.ExtendTable performance?