Validating Values in Multiple Fields in an Attribute Table

Question

I've been playing around with 'Maintaining Attribute Integrity' functions found here:

http://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/...000000n000000/

I see how I can set domains and subtypes to control the values in the attribute table to maintain quality and how to validate features and relationships using the tools ArcGIS provides.

I don't know if I am missing something, but I have a situation where values in one field in an attribute table, depend on the value in another field in the same attribute table.

Let's have 3 fields (CITY, PROVINCE, COUNTRY)

Let's say I set a domain on the CITY field to populate a list of all the cities in the world. I want to be able to validate that the PROVINCE and COUNTRY fields are correct. So, for example, if I enter 'Toronto' in the CITY field, I want to validate that the PROVINCE field is 'Ontario' and the COUNTRY field is 'Canada'

I'm not sure how to set up the domains or subtypes to do this. I want to be able to run the validate functionality found here:

http://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/...000000v000000/

To throw an invalid error if these conditions aren't met. Can anyone suggest how I can accomplish this?

I can do this through python, but the validation in ArcGIS does a lot of things I was going to script, so I'm hoping it will do this for me too.

Thanks, Mike

• PolyGeo: Good question! ArcInfo Workstation had a command called CODEFIND which did exactly this but it may have been lost in translation to ArcGIS Desktop. DataReviewer is the most likely place to find it.
• Mike: Thanks PolyGeo. I'm working with a Standard license, so I don't have ArcInfo. Unfortunately, the direction I got from my manager is that I am allowed to write a script, but he won't let me fork out 2500ドル for the Data Reviewer license :(

Answer 1

I have just submitted an ArcGIS Idea for Validation of Hierarchical Fields but since your comment says that your requirement is now for Python I thought I would put together some code showing how to do this using dictionaries.

• The CityProvinceLookup table has two fields CITY and PROVINCE with a row for each valid combination.
• The ProvinceCountryLookup table has two fields PROVINCE and COUNTRY with a row for each valid combination.
• The test table has fields CITY, PROVINCE and COUNTRY.

The code is not as pythonic as it could be but I wanted to keep it fairly readable.

import arcpy
# Make dictionaries of lookup tables
dictCityProvince = {}
rows = arcpy.SearchCursor(r"C:\temp\test.gdb\CityProvinceLookup")
for row in rows:
 dictCityProvince[row.CITY] = row.PROVINCE
del row,rows
dictProvinceCountry = {}
rows = arcpy.SearchCursor(r"C:\temp\test.gdb\ProvinceCountryLookup")
for row in rows:
 dictProvinceCountry[row.PROVINCE] = row.COUNTRY
del row,rows
# Now test the data
rows = arcpy.SearchCursor(r"C:\temp\test.gdb\test")
for row in rows:
 if row.CITY == None or row.CITY == "" or row.CITY == " ":
 print "Row " + str(row.OBJECTID) + " has no value for CITY"
 hasCity = False
 else:
 hasCity = True
 if row.PROVINCE == None or row.PROVINCE == "" or row.PROVINCE == " ":
 print "Row " + str(row.OBJECTID) + " has no value for PROVINCE"
 hasProvince = False
 else:
 hasProvince = True
 if row.COUNTRY == None or row.COUNTRY == "" or row.COUNTRY == " ":
 print "Row " + str(row.OBJECTID) + " has no value for COUNTRY"
 hasCountry = False
 else:
 hasCountry = True
 if hasCity and hasProvince:
 if row.CITY in dictCityProvince:
 if row.PROVINCE == dictCityProvince[row.CITY]:
 pass
 else:
 print row.CITY + " is NOT in " + row.PROVINCE + " (Row " + str(row.OBJECTID) + ")"
 else:
 print row.CITY + " is NOT in CityProvinceLookup (Row " + str(row.OBJECTID) + ")"
 if hasProvince and hasCountry:
 if row.PROVINCE in dictProvinceCountry:
 if row.COUNTRY == dictProvinceCountry[row.PROVINCE]:
 pass
 else:
 print row.PROVINCE + " is NOT in " + row.COUNTRY + " (Row " + str(row.OBJECTID) + ")"
 else:
 print row.PROVINCE + " is NOT in ProvinceCountryLookup (Row " + str(row.OBJECTID) + ")"
del row,rows

• Mike: Hey PolyGeo, I finally had a chance to look at this code. I made a couple adjustments to suit my needs, but it works well. I like the idea of using dictionaries this way. It's new to me. Thanks for taking the time creating and posting this code!