Invalid data source issue when trying to use lyr.replaceDataSource

Question

When I run the following code in an open mapdocument, it executes and does what I want it to, replace the datasource of the Indianacounty_shp layer with the County_Boundary feature class.

import arcpy, os, datetime
mxd = arcpy.mapping.MapDocument("CURRENT")
        lyr = arcpy.mapping.Layer('Indianacounty_shp')
        lyr.replaceDataSource(r"N:\3_PLANNING\6_GIS\GIS Data\Indiana_County_Database_201201.gdb", "FILEGDB_WORKSPACE", 'County_Boundary', True)
        mxd.save()

I'm attempting to write a script the have it run through a list of mxd's in a folder, and do the same thing for all of them. When I run the following script, i get a "Runtime error : Object: CreateObject Layer invalid data source"

import arcpy
import arcpy.mapping
import os
import sys
from arcpy import env
import string

env.workspace = r"N:\3_PLANNING\6_GIS\GIS Projects\CompPlanMaps\test"
for mxd in arcpy.ListFiles("*.mxd"):
    mapdoc = arcpy.mapping.MapDocument("N:/3_PLANNING/6_GIS/GIS Projects/CompPlanMaps/test/" + mxd)
    lyr = arcpy.mapping.Layer('Indianacounty_shp')
    lyr.replaceDataSource("N:/3_PLANNING/6_GIS/GIS Data/Indiana_County_Database_201201.gdb", "FILEGDB_WORKSPACE", 'County_Boundary', True)
    mxd.save()
del mxd, addLayer, mapdoc

I've tried with both / or \ in the file names, and with and without the r in front. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?

Answer 1

This line will work in your open MXD because it can find a layer called 'Indianacounty_shp'

lyr = arcpy.mapping.Layer('Indianacounty_shp')

However, when you get to the Table of Contents for each MXD you open from your script you will need to iterate through the layers and search for any called 'Indianacounty_shp' before attempting to do the same thing (in some I suspect that layer may not exist). The untested code below should do it.

for lyr in arcpy.mapping.ListLayers(mxd, 'Indianacounty_shp'):
    lyr.replaceDataSource("N:/3_PLANNING/6_GIS/GIS Data/Indiana_County_Database_201201.gdb", "FILEGDB_WORKSPACE", 'County_Boundary', True)