Using ArcPy with Intersect and loop

Question

I am new to scripting.

I have around 4500 small shapefiles to be intersected with one big shapefile. The primary key is to make 4500 small intersected shapefiles.

How to do it correctly by using ArcPy?

I tried using batch processing, but I quit after few tries, as it is lot of work. I wrote some kind of "script".

#system modules
import arcpy, os, datetime
from arcpy import env
from arcpy.sa import *
arcpy.env.workspace = r"D:\test\split\los"
arcpy.env.overwriteOutput = True
print "start"
infeature = ["big.shp", "small1.shp"]
join_attributes = "ALL"
cluster_tolerance = "-1 Unknown"
output_type = "INPUT"
for i in infeature:
 outfeature = r"D:\test\split\los_" + i
 arcpy.Intersect_analysis(infeature, outfeature, join_attributes, cluster_tolerance, output_type)
print "end"

• Bera: List the 4500 shapefiles using listfeatureclasses. How are they named?
• Adam: Shapefiles are called 1.shp, 2.shp, 3.shp etc.

Answer 1

Try to use ListFeatureClasses:

Returns a list of the feature classes in the current workspace

Untested:

import arcpy, os, datetime
from arcpy import env
arcpy.env.workspace = r"D:\test\split\los"
arcpy.env.overwriteOutput = True
smallshapes = [f for f in arcpy.ListFeatureClasses() if f.split('.')[0].isdigit()] #List all shapefiles that have only digits in name
join_attributes = "ALL"
cluster_tolerance = "-1 Unknown"
output_type = "INPUT"
i = 0 #For naming outputs
for smallshape in smallshapes:
 outfeature = r"D:\test\split\los_" + "{0}.shp".format(i)
 arcpy.Intersect_analysis([smallshape, "big.shp"], outfeature, join_attributes, cluster_tolerance, output_type)
 i+=1
print "end"