Using multiple wildcard parameters with arcpy.ListFeatureClasses

Question

I know there has to be a way to do this but I'm having trouble figuring out how to do so. I would like to create a list of feature classes to perform operations on however, I want to have the list contain feature classes which have 2 separate and distinct file name identifiers. The code would look something like:

FCS = arcpy.ListFeatureClasses("X_*" OR "*_Y")

I know OR is incorrect however, is there some way to do this without having to re write code to work with the second wildcard. Thanks for helping gout, i know there is a selection method in the Select By Attributes which allows for multiple wildcard use using the OR statement.

Answer 1

Add the two together, they are just lists.

FCS = arcpy.ListFeatureClasses("X_*") + arcpy.ListFeatureClasses("*_Y")

To eliminate duplicates:

FCS = set(arcpy.ListFeatureClasses("X_*") + arcpy.ListFeatureClasses("*_Y"))

Answer 2

You could approach it a bit differently:

import arcpy
import os

arcpy.env.workspace = 'c:\temp'
fcs = [fc for fc in arcpy.ListFeatureClasses() if fc.startswith('X_') or os.path.splitext(fc)[0].endswith('_Y')]

Answer 3

This scripts specifies multiple wildcards in a list cases []. Than it loops over unique cases, listing desired feature classes 'arcpy.ListFeatureClasses()'. Each selected feature class is that added to the new list of feature classes using '.extend'

# Create a list of the wildcards 
cases = ["X_*", ""*_Y""]

# Create empty list to store all selected files
fcs= []

# Loop through files to select files following multiple wildcards
for case in cases:
    fc = arcpy.ListFeatureClasses(case)
    # Insert the fc to the list
    fcs.extend(fc)