Getting Run time error cannot open 'xxxx' from ArcPy?

Question

I am trying to create a script to add values to a new field in a table based on the text values of another field in the same table. Here is my code:

import os
import arcpy
from arcpy import env
arcpy.env.workspace = "c:/Myfiles/geodatabase"
updateFields = ["fieldname1","fieldname2"]
def updateweight(filename,fields):
 with arcpy.da.UpdateCursor(filename,fields) as cursor:
 for row in rows:
 if row[0] == "unrestricted":
 row[1] = 3
 elif row[0] == "restricted":
 row[1] = 2
 elif row[0] == "severely restricted":
 row[1] = 0
 Cursor.updateRow(row)
 del cursor
updateweight("shape_file_name", updateFields)

When I run this I get:

Run time error
File "<string>" line 1 in <module>
File "<string?" line 11 in updateweight cannot open 'shape_file_name'

I've tried including the .dbf file extension in the file name and also tried calling the assigning a variable to the filename and calling it that way.

I was unable to copy and paste the code directly because it is on a work machine in a secure environment, so there my be some typos in the code. I wrote it as a function so I can make it into a more generic tool once I've tested it.

• user2856: I assume you mean feature class not shapefile. You can't store shapefiles in a file geodatabase (FGDB). You can have feature classes in an FGDB (or in a feature dataset in an FGDB). If you have copied an actual shapefile (i.e the "shape_file_name.shp", "shape_file_name.shx" and "shape_file_name.dbf" files) into the file geodatabase directory, then that def. won't work.

Answer 1

I think that error is telling you that it cannot find a shapefile named "shape_file_name" in the current workspace.

I suspect that you may have set a variable named shape_file_name in code outside what you have presented and then tried to refer to it as "shape_file_name" instead of shape_file_name.

• Greg Noland: I used "shape_file_name" here as a generic name, in the script I called the actual name, sorry if that caused confusion.
• PolyGeo: @GregNoland perhaps review gis.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4312/…
• Greg Noland: I can see the shapefile in a feature dataset in the geodatabbase in arc catalog.
• PolyGeo: @GregNoland Shapefiles cannot exist within geodatabases but feature classes can, and feature classes can also exist within feature.datasets of geodatabases.
• Greg Noland: Thanks for link, I'll keep it handy for my next question. I guess I wasn't fully aware of the difference between the two, which is probably the problem. Now that I think of it, it is likely a feature class. Should exporting it as a shapefile, then calling the correct path fix the issue?