ArcPy: Feature class “doesn't exist” after MakeFeatureLayer

Question

I was working on a Python script to analyze the geometries of a feature class and write something out. It worked fine the first time, but gave an IOError each subsequent time. I narrowed the problem down to the following: (not my actual code, but shows the weird behavior)

arcpy.Exists("MyFeatureClass")  # returns true
arcpy.MakeFeatureLayer_management("MyFeatureClass", "MyFeatureLayer")
arcpy.Delete_management("MyFeatureLayer")  # returns true
arcpy.Exists("MyFeatureClass")  # returns FALSE

Can anyone think of why the feature class would become inaccessible after making a feature layer out of it? Something to do with locks?

Answer 1

Works fine here:

>>> fc = r"C:\GISData\atlantic_hurricanes_2000.shp"
>>> lyr = arcpy.MakeFeatureLayer_management(fc)
>>> lyr
<Result 'atlantic_hurricanes_2000_Lay'>
>>> lyr.getOutput(0)
<map layer u'atlantic_hurricanes_2000_Lay'>
>>> lyr = lyr.getOutput(0)
>>> lyr.name
u'atlantic_hurricanes_2000_Lay'
>>> arcpy.Exists(fc)
True
>>> arcpy.Exists(lyr)
True
>>> arcpy.Exists(lyr.name)
True
>>> arcpy.Delete_management(lyr)
<Result 'true'>
>>> arcpy.Exists(lyr.name)
False
>>> arcpy.Exists(fc)
True

Works fine with a point feature class in a file geodatabase as well:

>>> fc = r"C:\GISData\test.gdb\atlantic_hurricanes_2000"
>>> lyr = arcpy.MakeFeatureLayer_management(fc).getOutput(0)
>>> arcpy.Exists(fc)
True
>>> arcpy.Delete_management(lyr)
<Result 'true'>
>>> arcpy.Exists(fc)
True