Copying features from 'in_memory' to 'in_memory' using ArcPy?

Question

I came across this post and found out about Copy_management().

Is it possible to copy an in_memory feature to another in_memory feature?

I tried to test it using the following code, which fails:

shp = r"D:\test\somefile.shp"

bufferOne = arcpy.Buffer_analysis(shp,r"in_memory\bufferOne",'1 meters')

copyOfFirst = arcpy.Copy_management(bufferOne,r'in_memory\BufferOneCopy')

Trying the exact same thing with absolute paths, instead of in_memory works fine. Therefore I assume you cannot copy from in_memory to in_memory, or am I missing something? Would there be a way to achieve the same effect?

Answer 1

Yes, you can. Use the Copy_Features GP tool for that.

pnt_fc = r"C:\Users\us\Documents\ArcGIS\Default.gdb\_PointDistanceFc"

mem1 = r"in_memory\bufferOne"
mem2 = r"in_memory\bufferTwo"

arcpy.Buffer_analysis(in_features=pnt_fc,
                      out_feature_class=mem1,
                      buffer_distance_or_field='10 Meters')

arcpy.CopyFeatures_management(mem1,mem2)

arcpy.CopyFeatures_management(mem2,r"C:\Users\us\Documents\ArcGIS\Default.gdb\out123")

When you use the following approach:

mem1 = arcpy.Buffer_analysis(in_features=pnt_fc,
                      out_feature_class=r"in_memory\bufferOne",
                      buffer_distance_or_field='10 Meters')

mem2 = arcpy.CopyFeatures_management(mem1,r"in_memory\bufferTwo")

arcpy.CopyFeatures_management(mem2,r"C:\Users\us\Documents\ArcGIS\Default.gdb\out123")

You are getting mem1 and mem2 of type <class 'arcpy.arcobjects.arcobjects.Result'>, you should be aware of this if you are planning to interact with those objects.

Answer 2

It is not possible to save the output of the Copy tool to in_memory, whatever the input's workspace. It is explained in the last answer of the post you mentioned, I add here an updated reference.

FYI, there are some other tools that don't accept in_memory as output workspace, e.g. Project.