Merge layer files in folders and subfolders with arcpy

Question

I work with arcview 10.3. I try to merge layer files in order to get one layer file that include all the features in the other layer files. All layer files as different names, and they all spread in big folder that divided to a lot of sub folders. My code is:

import arcpy,os,sys,string,fnmatch
import arcpy.mapping
from arcpy import env


rootPath = r"C:\Project\layers"
pattern = '*.lyr'
lyr2merge = []
counter = 0
for root, dirs, files in os.walk(rootPath):  
    for filename in fnmatch.filter(files, pattern):  
        lyr2merge.append(os.path.join(root, filename))
        counter = counter + 1
 arcpy.Merge_management(lyr2merge, r"C:\Project\layers\layer_total.lyr")
print 'merge'
print counter

i got an error:

ExecuteError: Failed to execute. Parameters are not valid.
ERROR 000840: The value is not a Table View.
ERROR 000840: The value is not a Table View.
ERROR 000840: The value is not a Table View.
Failed to execute (Merge).

i can merge shapefiles Merge shapefiles in folders and subfolders with arcpy but after that i will have to save it as layer file. Is it possible?

Answer 1

You are receiving that error because you are not providing one of the supported data types to Merge_management:

Input datasets can be point, line, or polygon feature classes or tables.

You can create a Layer object from a shapefile and save the Layer as a Layer file.

However, you need to be aware that the spatial data is not saved as part of the layer file. The layer file contains a pointer to the location of the spatial data.

Instead of trying "to merge layer files in order to get one layer file that include all the features in the other layer files" perhaps try to:

1. Find the data sources of layer files you want to "merge"
2. Combine the data from those sources into a single spatial dataset
3. Create a layer (to then save as a layer file) from that spatial dataset