Export all coded value domains from a geodatabase

Question

On the ESRI-L mailing list this morning there was a question about how to see or export all the coded value domains for a geodatabase. The goal is to present the content of the domains in a tabular form, so they're easy to read.

The DomainToTable tool does this easily for a single domain, but when there are many domains it quickly grows tiresome. The best advice I could give was to the batch processing feature, but even that requires knowing or looking up the names of domains individually.

Surely there's a better way?

Answer 1

Here is something I put together that works on the simple gdb's I have on hand. I don't know how it might or might not handle sub-types with multiple domains (see Brent's comment).

Usage:

python export_gdb_domains.py [input geodatabase]

It exports the tables to the same gdb it's getting the domains from. It will fail if the table(s) exist already.

''' Export all coded value domains in a geodatabase to tables in that gdb '''
import os, sys
import arcpy

gdb = sys.argv[0]

desc = arcpy.Describe(gdb)
domains = desc.domains

for domain in domains:
    print 'Exporting %s CV to table in %s' % (domain, gdb)
    table = os.path.join(gdb, domain)
    arcpy.DomainToTable_management(gdb, domain, table,
        'field','descript', '#')

Updated version on github at https://github.com/envygeo/arcplus/blob/master/ArcToolbox/Scripts/export_gdb_domains.py. Optionally writes to XLS and overwrites existing tables.

Resources:

• Checking if domain already exists using ArcPy?
• Domain to Table help page

---

History

I initially tried to use an output directory and .csv files for the results instead, but kept getting "ERROR 000142: Field name in dBASE table cannot be longer than 10 characters". It seems to always interpret the path as part of the table name (c.f. table = line) {shrug}.

[Later]: @dgj32784 found the cause, 'description' at 11 characters is too long.

Answer 2

Here's some code that exports all the domains to Excel files. Also, you are getting the error when trying to export to DBF because the word "description" is 11 characters long.

''' Export all coded value domains in a geodatabase to Excel files in the same directory '''
import os, sys
import arcpy

## Ideal when testing so you don't keep getting errors
arcpy.env.overwriteOutput = True

## Specify the File Geodatabase workspace
gdb = sys.argv[0]

## Get a list of domains
desc = arcpy.Describe(gdb)
domains = desc.domains

## Loop over the list of domains
for domain in domains:
    ## Create an object that represents the name of the Excel file to be created
    table_name = domain + '.xls'
    ## Let the user know what is happening
    print('Exporting {0} domain to table {1}'.format(domain, table_name))
    ## Create an object that represents the full path of the Excel file to be created
    table_full_path = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(gdb), table_name)
    ## Create an in memory object for the DBF to temporarily store the domains (since this is the default file type)
    in_memory_dbf = "in_memory" + "\\" + domain + ".dbf"
    ## Export the domain to the temporary in memory table
    ## NOTE: Cannot use "description," that is longer than 10 characters
    arcpy.DomainToTable_management(gdb, domain, in_memory_dbf, 'field', 'desc', '#')
    ## Convert the in memory table to an Excel stored on disc
    arcpy.TableToExcel_conversion(in_memory_dbf, table_full_path)
    ## Clear the memory so ArcGIS doesn't pitch a fit
    arcpy.Delete_management("in_memory")

EDIT: fixed print format (line 20)