How to determine storage type (ST_Geom/Oracle) from arcpy/python

Question

We're migrating some feature classes from SDELOB (or some older binary format) to ST_Geometry. As we write our arcpy script to use the ESRI Migrate Storage Tool we'd like to test whether or not something already is ST_Geom...Other than writing hooks into the database, using the comtypes package etc., does anyone know of a simple way to determine this?

Answer 1

To follow-up on PolyGeo's answer, the Describe object is certainly where it should be, but it isn't. Database queries may be the best way to go here.

Although, if you have the SDE command-line binaries, another option would be to try doing something like this (yes it's a hack, but might work):

import subprocess
output = subprocess.check_output("sdelayer -o describe_long -s servername -D dbname -u username -p password -l tablename,columname")
for line in output:
    if line.find("Layer Type") == 0:
        storagetype = line.partition(":")[2].strip() # Should be something like "SDE-BINARY" or "Extended SQL Type/ST_GEOMETRY"

Answer 2

It would be good if the Describe object were able to access this.

This has now been submitted as an ArcGIS Idea (on which you can vote).