Creating ArcMap Versions using Arcpy

Question

Why doesn't the script break if the Version exists?

Traceback (most recent call last): File "C:\Users\jnmiller\Desktop\Create User Version.py", line 30, in arcpy.CreateVersion_management(sdeConnection, parentVersion, versionName, "PROTECTED") File "C:\Program Files (x86)\ArcGIS\Desktop10.5\ArcPy\arcpy\management.py", line 18244, in CreateVersion raise e ExecuteError: ERROR 001148: Cannot create a version with the specified name. Failed to execute (CreateVersion).

# Name: SDE_CreateVersion
# Description: Creates a new SDE version

# Import system modules
import arcpy, time, smtplib, os

# Set local variables
sdeConnection = "Database Connections\NEO_1.sde"
parentVersion = "sde.DEFAULT"
versionName = os.environ.get( "USERNAME" )

fullPath = os.path.join("Windows Credentials: EGAS", versionName)
existingVersion = os.path.join("Version Currently Exists: ",versionName)
createVersion = os.path.join("Version Created: ",versionName)

print("Searching for User Credentials..")
time.sleep(2)
print(fullPath)
time.sleep(3)
print("Checking SDE for existing Credentials..")

for version in arcpy.da.ListVersions(sdeConnection):
    if version.name.split(".")[0] == versionName:
        time.sleep(3)
        print(existingVersion)
        time.sleep(5)
        break
    else:
        # Execute CreateVersion
        arcpy.CreateVersion_management(sdeConnection, parentVersion, versionName, "PROTECTED")
        time.sleep(3)
        print(createVersion)
        time.sleep(5)

Answer 1

It fails because the version creation block is inside the loop over existing version. As it is now, the code loads the list of version, reads the name of the 1st one, and if the owner is different than the one in versionName, it creates the version.

To fix it, you must move the version creation block outside of the loop. You create a flag variable versionFound that you set to false by default, and to true if the version is found. Later, if versionFound == False, you can safely create the new version

versionFound = False
for version in arcpy.da.ListVersions(sdeConnection):
    if version.name.split(".")[0] == versionName:
        time.sleep(3)
        print(existingVersion)
        time.sleep(5)
        versionFound = True
        break


# Execute CreateVersion
if not versionFound:
        arcpy.CreateVersion_management(sdeConnection, parentVersion, versionName, "PROTECTED")
        time.sleep(3)
        print(createVersion)
        time.sleep(5)

Making users wait for nothing with all the sleep is not considered as best practices.