UpdateCursor RuntimeError: An invalid SQL statement was used

Question

with arcpy.da.UpdateCursor(inFeatures, "[TDS_Name]") as change_cursor:

for x in change_cursor:
        if x[0] == None:
                x[0] = x[0]
        else:
                x[0] = x[0].translate("-F", " ")
        
        change_cursor.updateRow(x)
    del change_cursor

RuntimeError: An invalid SQL statement was used. [SELECT [TDS_Name], OBJECTID FROM Test_Pit_2]

My purpose: Replace "-" with a " ", but only the first "-" in the ["TDS_Name"] field.

examples in TDS_Name: 1000-XX5, 4000-XX3, 3000-XX35-1

What they should be in the end: 1000 XX5, 4000 XX3, 3000 XX35-1

I used this line here which worked, but if I ran the script again would, unfortunately, remove the second "-":

arcpy.CalculateField_management(inFeatures, "TDS_Name", "!TDS_Name!.replace('-',' ', 1)", "PYTHON3", '', "TEXT")

I have imported ArcPy, and my workspace was set and the features showed up with the Exists function.

I tried using .replace in the UpdateCursor, but it didn't work and there is obviously an issue with my setup of the cursor in the first place.

Answer 1

There are several issues with your code:

1. As @Vince points out your list of fields that you supply to the cursor is incorrect
2. You are deleting the cursor within the loop
3. You are using the with statement so there is no need for a del
4. Your test for None does not need you to then assign Nothing back to it.
5. Indentation is EVERYTHING in python and currently your code is incorrectly indented. Now that may be you simply pasting it in wrong, but how are we to know that? If it was down to that then you need to make sure you don't do that as you are wasting everyone's time...
6. You should get into the habit of commenting your code, it helps you and others understand what is going on.

The correct code would be:

with arcpy.da.UpdateCursor(inFeatures, ["TDS_Name"]) as change_cursor:
    for row in change_cursor:
            if row[0] != None:
                # If row is not Nothing then replace first hyphen
                row[0] = row[0].replace("-", " ",1)
                change_cursor.updateRow(row)

Answer 2

You dont need to iterate over rows that are None/NULL or doesnt contain - so you can limit the rows returned by the cursor using a where_clause.

And when using with there is no need to delete the cursor:

sql = """{0} IS NOT NULL AND {0} LIKE '%-%'""".format(arcpy.AddFieldDelimiters(datasource=inFeatures, field='TDS_Name'))
with arcpy.da.UpdateCursor(in_table=inFeatures, field_names='TDS_Name', where_clause=sql) as cursor:
    for row in cursor:
        row[0] = row[0].replace('-',' ', 1)
        cursor.updateRow(row)

Answer 3

There are few changes that should be made:

#                                    (string in array)
with arcpy.da.UpdateCursor(inFeatures, ["TDS_Name"]) as change_cursor:
    for x in change_cursor:
        # (use 'in' operator, skipping x[0] = x[0] no-op)
        if '-' in x[0]:
            # (leverage replace, as in CalculateField) 
            x[0] = x[0].replace('-',' ', 1)
            # (only update when changed)
            change_cursor.updateRow(x)
    # (remove unnecessary del [with handles this])