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I am making a python code for Arcgis9.3. In this code I have an input feature and I create a Output feature. I want that the output feature is the same geometry type as the input feature. At the moment my code to create the output feature is :

gp.CreateFeatureclass("C:/Users/Desktop/Test/", NameOutFC, "POLYLINE")

But I would like to get the input feature geometry type and use it to create my output feature :

gp.CreateFeatureclass("C:/Users/Desktop/Test/", NameOutFC, GeometryLikeInput)

I found the code with ArcPy :

desc = arcpy.Describe('C:/shapefile.shp')
geometryType = desc.shapeType

if geometryType == 'polygon':
print 'Polygon'
elif geometryType == 'point'

But I can't use it with arcgis9.3.

Thanks for your help

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1 Answer 1

up vote 4 down vote accepted

You can use the Geometry object which is available even in 9.3.

enter image description here

The .pdf file for Geoprocessor model in 9.3

The code sample:

rows = gp.SearchCursor("D:/St_Johns/data.gdb/roads")
row = rows.Next()
while row:
    print row.Type

Alternative way is to use Describe method where you could use ShapeType:

import arcgisscripting
gp = arcgisscripting.create(9.3)
gp.workspace = r"C:\Program Files (x86)\ArcGIS\Reference Systems"
fc = r"C:\Program Files (x86)\ArcGIS\Reference Systems\utm.shp"
dsc = gp.describe(fc)
print "ShapeType: \n" + str(dsc.ShapeType)

Which gives you Polygon

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Yes but in this case i have to chexk all the feature in my shapefile and the return geometry type is the geometry type of each feature. So i am looking for a code which return the geometry of the shapefile directly without reading each row and retrun each feature geometry. –  Panvjim0 Apr 30 at 9:32
Then just add a counter in the code and use the while counter < 2 in the code. Shapefile can store only one type of geometry, so you are done when you figure out the geometry type of the first feature. –  Alex Tereshenkov Apr 30 at 9:39
@Panvjim0, I've updated my answer to include a cleaner way to access the shape type of a feature class. –  Alex Tereshenkov Apr 30 at 11:58

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