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I want to only display annotation from an annotation dataset that match the first three characters of the field in the shapefile used to drive a Data Driven Page (DDP) map export. (I'm running the map export through a Python script.)

Let's call the shapefile field that is used in the DDP FIELDNAME_A. Values in FIELDNAME_A have the format 360-2, 386-4, 516-2, etc.

I have an annotation dataset with a field called FIELDNAME_B which contains values of 360, 386, 516, etc.

Would it be to display annotation that matches the first three values in the DDP shapefile? For example:

DDP Shapefile FIELDNAME_A value: 360-2
Annotation data displayed from FIELDNAME_B: 360

Below are two screen captures of the attribute tables.

Data Driven Page shapefile FIELDNAME_A attribute table below

Data Driven Page shapefile FIELDNAME_A attribute table

Data Driven Page shapefile FIELDNAME_B attribute table below

Annotation FIELDNAME_B attribute table

The out of the box option for a Definition query does not seem to work, since the values in FIELDNAME_A and FIELDNAME_B do not match.

Is there a query builder or Python work around?

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    Have you tried adding a field to the shapefile and calculating its values to the first three characters of that other field, so that you can use it for that purpose?
    – PolyGeo ♦
    Sep 9, 2016 at 19:37
  • I tried doing a Spatial Join, but the output of that is a shapefile, not an annotation layer like I want. Thanks
    – Patty Jula
    Sep 9, 2016 at 19:55
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    I think using Spatial Join here is getting off track. Definition query seems right but you just need to get those field values matchable like I suggested. They will need to be of the same data type too.
    – PolyGeo ♦
    Sep 9, 2016 at 20:01

1 Answer 1

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Try something like this below. A couple of thing you may need to alter. I called the annotation layer the very creative name of "AnnotationLayer". Make sure you change that to your own annotation layer name. Also, if your annotation feature class is stored in a file geodatabase instead of a personal geodatabase, you may need to replace the square brackets in line 8 with quotes. And I didn't specify what you're calling your output file. I presume you already have that handled in your code.

import arcpy
mxd = arcpy.mapping.MapDocument("CURRENT")
ddp = mxd.dataDrivenPages
annoLyr = arcpy.mapping.ListLayers(mxd, "AnnotationLayer")[0]
for i in range(1, ddp.pageCount + 1): 
  ddp.currentPageID = i
  myFieldVal = ddp.pageRow.FIELDNAME_A
  annoLyr.definitionQuery = "[FIELDNAME_B] = " + str(myFieldVal)[:3]
  arcpy.RefreshActiveView()
  arcpy.mapping.ExportToPNG(mxd, outFilePath)
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