Update specific row based on string

Question

I'm new to ArcPy. I am attempting to find the string 'Unknown' and update the 'Comments' field, that indicates which field contains the 'Unknown' string for that row. I was attempting to use UpdateCursor but it populates every row under comments rather then just the specific row that contains the string.

points = r'C:/ex.shp'
fields= ['COMMENTS', 'COUNTY', 'STATUS']
with arcpy.da.UpdateCursor(points, fields) as cursor:
 for row in cursor:
 if row[1] == 'UNKNOWN':
 row[0] = 'County is Unknown'
 if row[2] == 'UNKNOWN':
 row[0] = 'Status is Unknown'
 cursor.updateRow(row)

enter image description here

I understand this won't work since it is checking/updating each row for that specified field. Can someone point me in the right direction on how one would do this properly?

• Vince: If you're searching for "Unknown", then then "UNKNOWN" won't match it (case sensitive comparison). Always use 4 spaces for your indent rule (see PEP 8). You don't handle the case where both are UNKNOWN.
• Bera: You are updating all rows since cursor.updateRow(row) is not indentated to match the ifs

Answer 1

Try this:

import arcpy
fc = r"C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Temp\ArcGISProTemp10292\Untitled\Default.gdb\points1"
fields = ["COMMENTS","COUNTY","STATUS"]
with arcpy.da.UpdateCursor(fc, fields) as cursor:
 for row in cursor:
 
 c = row.count("UNKNOWN") #Count how many times UNKNOWN occur in the row
 if c==0:
 result = "Missing" #If 0, set COMMENT to Missing
 elif c==1:
 result = f"{fields[row.index('UNKNOWN')]} is Unknown" #If once, fetch the field name from field list using index
 elif c==2:
 result = f"{fields[1]} and {fields[2]} are both Unknown"
 else:
 raise ValueError(f"Cant handle this row: {row}") #Just in case something went wrong, stop the execution
 
 row[0] = result
 cursor.updateRow(row)

index, count

enter image description here

Answer 2

Your code is work. You should use elif after first if condition and as Vince said, you should add one more condition. I think, your problem is – to view the result you must reopen the table.