Introducing Python in ArcGIS.docx

What is Python?
Python is a language that is used to puting tasks through programs called scripts. Automation makes work easier, faster, and more accurate. This applies to GIS and many other areas puter science. Learning Python will make you a more effective GIS analyst, but Python programming is a technical skill that can be beneficial to you even outside the field of GIS.
Python is a good language for beginning programming. Python is a high-level language, meaning you don’t have to understand the “nuts and bolts” of puters work in order to use it. Python syntax (how the code statements are constructed) is relatively simple to read and understand. Finally, Python requires very little overhead to get a program up and running.
Python is an open-source language and there is no fee to use it or deploy programs with it. Python can run on Windows, Linux, and Unix operating systems.
In ArcGIS, Python can be used for coarse-grained programming, meaning that you can use it to easily run geoprocessing tools such as the Buffer tool that we just worked with. You could code all the buffer logic yourself, using more detailed, fine-grained programming with ArcObjects, but this would be time consuming and unnecessary in most scenarios; it’s easier just to call the Buffer tool from a Python script using one line of code.
Introducing Python using the Python window in ArcGIS
The best way to introduce Python may be to look at a little bit of code. Let’s take the Buffer tool which you recently ran from the ArcToolbox GUI and run it in the ArcGIS Python window. This window allows you to type simple series of mands without writing full permanent scripts. The Python window is a great way to get a taste of Python.
This time, we’ll make buffers of 15 miles around the cities.
Open ArcMap to a new empty map.
Add the dataset from the Lesson 1 data.
On the Standard toolbar, click the Python window button . Once the window appears, drag it over to the side or bottom of