ArcMap

InsertCursor

Summary

InsertCursor establishes a write cursor on a feature class or table. InsertCursor can be used to add new rows.

Discussion

When using InsertCursor on a point feature class, creating a PointGeometry and setting it to the SHAPE@ token is a comparatively expensive operation. Instead, define the point feature using tokens such as SHAPE@XY, SHAPE@Z, and SHAPE@M for faster, more efficient access.

Syntax

InsertCursor (in_table, field_names)
ParameterExplanationData Type
in_table

The feature class, layer, table, or table view.

String
field_names
[field_names,...]

A list (or tuple) of field names. For a single field, you can use a string instead of a list of strings.

Use an asterisk (*) instead of a list of fields if you want to access all fields from the input table (raster and BLOB fields are excluded). However, for faster performance and reliable field order, it is recommended that the list of fields be narrowed to only those that are actually needed.

Raster fields are not supported.

Additional information can be accessed using tokens (such as OID@) in place of field names:

  • SHAPE@XY —A tuple of the feature's centroid x,y coordinates.
  • SHAPE@XYZ —A tuple of the feature's centroid x,y,z coordinates. This token is only supported when the geometry is z-enabled.
  • SHAPE@TRUECENTROID —A tuple of the feature's centroid x,y coordinates. This returns the same value as SHAPE@XY.
  • SHAPE@X —A double of the feature's x-coordinate.
  • SHAPE@Y —A double of the feature's y-coordinate.
  • SHAPE@Z —A double of the feature's z-coordinate.
  • SHAPE@M —A double of the feature's m-value.
  • SHAPE@JSON — The Esri JSON string representing the geometry.
  • SHAPE@WKB —The well-known binary (WKB) representation for OGC geometry. It provides a portable representation of a geometry value as a contiguous stream of bytes.
  • SHAPE@WKT —The well-known text (WKT) representation for OGC geometry. It provides a portable representation of a geometry value as a text string.
  • SHAPE@ —A geometry object for the feature.

Polygon, polyline, or multipoint features can only be created using the SHAPE@ token.

String

Properties

PropertyExplanationData Type
fields
(Read Only)

A tuple of field names used by the cursor.

The tuple will include all fields (and tokens) specified by the field_names argument. If the field_names argument is set to *, the fields property will include all fields used by the cursor. When using *, geometry values will be returned in a tuple of the x,y-coordinates (equivalent to the SHAPE@XY token).

The order of the field names on the fields property will be the same as passed in with the field_names argument.

tuple

Method Overview

MethodExplanation
insertRow (row)

Inserts a row into a table.

Methods

insertRow (row)
ParameterExplanationData Type
row
[row,...]

A list or tuple of values. The order of values must be in the same order as specified when creating the cursor.

When updating fields, if the incoming values match the type of field, the values will be cast as necessary. For example, a value of 1.0 to a string field will be added as "1.0", and a value of "25" added to a float field will be added as 25.0.

tuple

Return Value

Data TypeExplanation
Integer

insertRow returns the objectid of the new row.

Code sample

Use InsertCursor to insert new rows into a table.

import arcpy
import datetime

# Create an insert cursor for a table specifying the fields that will
# have values provided
fields = ['rowid', 'distance', 'CFCC', 'DateInsp']
cursor = arcpy.da.InsertCursor('D:/data/base.gdb/roads_maint', fields)

# Create 25 new rows. Set default values on distance and CFCC code
for x in range(0, 25):
    cursor.insertRow((x, 100, 'A10', datetime.datetime.now()))

# Delete cursor object
del cursor

Use InsertCursor with the SHAPE@XY token to add point features to a point feature class.

import arcpy

# A list of values that will be used to construct new rows
row_values = [('Anderson', (1409934.4442000017, 1076766.8192000017)),
              ('Andrews', (752000.2489000037, 1128929.8114))]

# Open an InsertCursor
cursor = arcpy.da.InsertCursor('C:/data/texas.gdb/counties',
                               ['NAME', 'SHAPE@XY'])

# Insert new rows that include the county name and a x,y coordinate
#  pair that represents the county center
for row in row_values:
    cursor.insertRow(row)

# Delete cursor object
del cursor

Use InsertCursor with the SHAPE@ token to add a new feature using a geometry object.

import arcpy

# Create a polyline geometry
array = arcpy.Array([arcpy.Point(459111.6681, 5010433.1285),
                     arcpy.Point(472516.3818, 5001431.0808),
                     arcpy.Point(477710.8185, 4986587.1063)])
polyline = arcpy.Polyline(array)

# Open an InsertCursor and insert the new geometry
cursor = arcpy.da.InsertCursor('C:/data/texas.gdb/counties', ['SHAPE@'])
cursor.insertRow([polyline])

# Delete cursor object
del cursor

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