Taking data from a CSV file to create points on a shapefile

Question

I am trying to import data from a CSV file and write a script that will generate points on a new shapefile. I am running into issues for when I try to update the InsertCursor. I get an error of "not enough quota is available to process this command". I am fairly new to Python; does anyone have any idea of what is wrong with my code?

#Import a csv file and take the coordinates of each ASOS and create a polypoint output
import csv
import arcpy
import os
from arcpy import env

#Lets you write over the shape file if needed
arcpy.env.overwriteOutput = True

targetFolder = "C:\\GEOG485\\FinalProject\\OutPut"
env.workspace = targetFolder

#csv file that we are importing
asosFile = "C:\\GEOG485\\FinalProject\\isd-history.csv"

targetState = 'NJ'

try:
    #Create the featureclass ASOS shapefile, 4326 is the factory code for the required coordinate system of the file
    asosStations = arcpy.CreateFeatureclass_management("C:\\GEOG485\\FinalProject\\","ASOS","POINT",'','',"ENABLED",4326)
    print ("success")
    #add a new field called "Station Name", "CTRY", "STATE" and "END"
    arcpy.AddField_management(asosStations,"STATION_NAME", "TEXT")
    arcpy.AddField_management(asosStations,"CTRY","TEXT")
    arcpy.AddField_management(asosStations,"STATE","TEXT")
    arcpy.AddField_management(asosStations,"ICAO","TEXT")
    arcpy.AddField_management(asosStations,"END","TEXT")
    print ("success")

except:
    print ("error")

#asos dictinary
asos = {}

try:
    #Use the with statement to open the csv file and r to read mode
    with open(asosFile, 'r') as csvv:
        #Reading the csv file with DictReader which takes the first row of the file and uses them as keys
        reader = csv.DictReader(csvv)
        #Loops through the csv file
        for row in reader:
            #Dictionary to see what asos's have a key in the dictionary and append the asos location with the coordinates
            if row['ICAO'] not in asos:
                asos[row['ICAO']] = []
            asos[row['ICAO']].append((row['LAT'],row['LON']))
            print ("success2")
except:
    print ("error2")

try:
    #Takes the points that we just appended to each asos station and adds them to the shapefile
    with arcpy.da.InsertCursor(asosStations, ["ICAO","SHAPE@XY"]) as cur:
        #Loop checks for keys (file headers) and values (asos's inside the dictionary)
        for key,value in asos.items():
            print key,value
            #creates a point with the points for each asos station in the shape file
            for coords in value:
                point = arcpy.Point(*coords) 
                #Takes all the keys with the same names and adds all the associated points to them
                row2 = (key,point)
                cur.insertRow(row2)
                print ("success3")
except:
    print ("error3")

Answer 1

To create a shapefile from CSV data, I would do something like this:

import arcpy

#  These values based on your script
XFieldName = 'LON'
YFieldName = 'LAT'
outFolder = "C:/GEOG485/FinalProject/OutPut"
spatialRef = arcpy.SpatialReference(4326)
csvFilePath = "C:/GEOG485/FinalProject/isd-history.csv"

arcpy.MakeXYEventLayer_management(csvFilePath, XFieldName, YFieldName, newLayerName, spatial_reference=spatialRef)
arcpy.FeatureClassToShapefile_conversion(newLayerName, outFolder)

In ArcGIS an 'XY event layer' is a layer created from a table (either a database table, a spreadsheet, or a CSV) where the X and Y coordinates are taken from specified columns in that table.

So only two commands are required. Firstly to create the XY event layer from the CSV, and secondly to convert that layer to a shapefile saved on disk.

One problem with this approach is that sometimes ArcGIS can guess the wrong data type for a column. This usually happens if you have an integer in the first row and text or float in some later row. ArcGIS assumes it's an integer columns based on the first row, and then errors out when it comes across some other data that it can't make into an integer.

If you have this issue, just create a 'schema.ini' file in the same location as the CSV file and configure it to define the types for the problem fields. These are just small text files with a "ini" extension. So you can create them in notepad, etc.

For information on how to write schema.ini files, see: https://digimap.edina.ac.uk/webhelp/digimapgis/arcgis/standard_arcgis_functions/importing_text_files_arcgis.htm How to auto-create a schema.ini file for a .csv?