# Getting coordinates of Polyline in ArcGIS Desktop?

I would like to know how to get the coordinates of one of the vertexes of a polyline in ArcMap 10.3.1.

Here is a code snippet in arcpy that will do the job:

import arcpy
input_feature_class = r'C:\path\to\polyline_feature_class'

with arcpy.da.SearchCursor(input_feature_class, ['SHAPE@']) as s_cur:
for row in s_cur:
polyline = row[0]
for feature in polyline:
for point in feature:
print point


The key to understanding this code is that you are using the SHAPE@ token to directly access the shape field with a data access Search Cursor. Because this feature class is a polyline feature class the shape field, accessed by SHAPE@, is a Polyline Object. The features of the Polyline can be looped over, and further the points of each feature can be looped over as well.

If you are just interested in the first or last points of a polyline, then the Polyline object has attributes .firstPoint and .lastPoint that can be called to directly use the first or last point respectively. From the code snippet above the variable polyline could use them like this:

print polyline.firstPoint
print polyline.lastPoint


If you want to avoid the Python route, there is a Feature Vertices To Points tool. This will create a point per vertex that you can either identify and view the coordinate data or export to a text file and view.

Note that this is only a good option for wanting to extract endpoints/verticies of a handful of polylines. If you need to do a whole feature class or whatnot, you'll want to go the Python route.

You just need to find the the Sketch Properties panel button in the Editor toolbar :

When you are in Edit mode, double click on your polyline. You'll see all vertices coordinates appear in the Edit Sketch Properties panel. You'll also be able to change the coordinates if needed by double cliquing on the numbers. You can also select multiple vertices at the same time by ticking the box in front of the numbers.