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You're reading from Programming ArcGIS 10.1 with Python Cookbook This book provides the recipes you need to use Python with AcrGIS for more effective geoprocessing. Shortcuts, scripts, tools, and customizations put you in the driving seat and can dramatically speed up your workflow.

Product type Paperback

Published in Feb 2013

Publisher Packt

ISBN-13 9781849694445

Length 304 pages

Edition 1st Edition

Languages

Python

Tools

ArcGIS

Concepts

Geospatial Analysis

Author (1):

Eric Pimpler

View More author details

Table of Contents (21) Chapters

Programming ArcGIS 10.1 with Python Cookbook

Credits

About the Author

About the Reviewers

www.PacktPub.com

Preface

1. Fundamentals of the Python Language for ArcGIS FREE CHAPTER

2. Writing Basic Geoprocessing Scripts with ArcPy

3. Managing Map Documents and Layers

4. Finding and Fixing Broken Data Links

5. Automating Map Production and Printing

6. Executing Geoprocessing Tools from Scripts

7. Creating Custom Geoprocessing Tools

8. Querying and Selecting Data

9. Using the ArcPy Data Access Module to Select, Insert, and Update Geographic Data and Tables

10. Listing and Describing GIS Data

11. Customizing the ArcGIS Interface with Add-Ins

12. Error Handling and Troubleshooting

Automating Python Scripts

Five Things Every GIS Programmer Should Know How to Do with Python

Index

Accessing a data frame

The ArcMap table of contents is composed of one or more data frames. Each data frame can contain layers and tables. Data frames can be used to filter lists that are returned from the various list functions such as ListLayers(). For example, a DataFrame object can be used as an input parameter to restrict the layers returned by the ListLayers() function to only those layers within a particular data frame. You can also use a DataFrame object to get or set the current map extent, which can be useful when creating map books. In this recipe you will learn how to access data frames from your Python scripts.

Getting ready

The ListDataFrames() function returns a list of DataFrame objects. Each data frame can hold layers and tables and can be used to restrict the lists returned by the ListLayers() and ListTablesViews() functions.