Tables in ArcMap 10.0 - are they layers or tableviews

Question

Is a table in ArcMap a layer or a tableview. I want to be able to feed a table into an UpdateCursor via a toolbox script. If my table has a definition query on it how do I check for that with python?

Answer 1

A table is a table. Look at the Dataset properties docs. Here is a describe on a Excel sheet:

>>> import arcpy
>>> desc = arcpy.Describe("Sheet1$")
>>> print desc.datasetType
Table

And here is how you get the definition query, again with a describe:

>>> desc = arcpy.Describe("Sheet1$")
>>> dq = desc.whereClause
>>> dq
u"`F2` = 'Downloaded data'"
>>>

EDIT: blah238 is correct:

>>> desc = arcpy.Describe("Sheet1$")
>>> print desc.dataType
TableView

So, evidently a table is seen as a File and not a Dataset? The help topic on File properties isn't very helpful.

Answer 2

Thanks @blah238. I found this arcpy.mapping.ListTableViews(mxd, "", df): which is what I was looking for here