Introduction

Geoprocessing tasks tend to be time consuming and repetitive, and often need to be run on a periodic basis. Frequently, many data layers and functions are involved. The ArcPy Python site package for ArcGIS provides a set of tools and execution environments that can be used to transform your data into meaningful results. Using scripts you can automate your geoprocessing tasks and schedule them to run when it is most convenient for your organization.

ArcGIS provides a geoprocessing framework for the purpose of automating your repetitive GIS tasks through a set of tools and execution environments for these tools. All tools operate on an input dataset, which you supply and transform in some way (depending upon the nature of the tool used) to produce a new output dataset. This new output dataset can then, if necessary, be used as the input dataset to additional geoprocessing tools in a larger workflow for your tasks. There are many tools provided by the ArcGIS geoprocessing framework, each designed to provide specific functionality.

While there are many different environments that you can use to write your geoprocessing scripts with Python, this book will focus on the use of the built-in ArcGIS Python window and the Python IDLE editor.