Programming Module 4

Trial and Error

I decided to add the subtitle uh trial and error to this module because there was much trial and error during the lab exercise and the lab process itself. Starting with the lab exercises, they were definitely a jump in advanced code writing as much of the lines of code and statements, functions, arguments were more advanced and took much more research on my part to learn the parameters when writing them and notebook.

The lab exercise included learning about new functions as they relate to arc GIS pro and while the overall intent of the lab exercises made sense, there was much research involved in learning The Y as opposed to the how.

In the first part of the lab exercise I was tasked with designing and creating a model inside arc GIS pro that would clip two input data sets to then create an output data that would then select certain features within the output data set and would store the output data files in the correct file path, as well as run the module producing a final result of flood zones that were clipped previously.

The next part of the lab exercise included using a buffer analysis code that would create a new feature with the resulting buffers once the parameters were set in place. A lot of this included correctly typing the syntax and correctly forming the parameters within ArcGIS notebooks.

 The data sets also needed to have a defined coordinate system in which we learned how to run a line of code that would print a spatial reference output statement at the end.

The most crucial part of this lab exercise that I took away was that there are multiple ways of writing code and typing commands and tools in Python that achieve the same purpose or output.

As well as there are lines of code that are needed at the beginning of a script that will not allow a script to run properly or to even understand how to reference file paths that you're working out of. Some of these include defining the environment at the beginning as well as importing the modules from the arc GIS library as well as telling the script to overwrite any files that already exist in the output folder.

As for lab 4 we utilized some of the skills that we learned in the exercise portion of the module that have to do with model building and performing a line of commands inside of a script that produce an output necessary before completion.

    Some of the commands such as adding an XY coordinate to a feature class required us to visit the Esri website to learn the information that they provide. I also utilized some other resources online to learn more about some of these functions such as the “get messages” command line.

All in all, there were some roadblocks that definitely required me to stop and return to a previous step and to work my way back to the problem that I was facing such as some of the errors which turned out to be mainly runtime errors once the syntax errors were addressed.

Again, much of this module required trial and error methodology but was in the end able to successfully finish the process summary questions and to produce the outputs that I wanted.