ArcGIS10.2 Data Merge error: 000732

Question

I am running python in the ArcGIS python window. ArcGIS shows error message when trying data merge from arcpy.

File "", line 1, in File "c:\program files (x86)\arcgis\desktop10.2\arcpy\arcpy\management.py", line 3816, in Merge raise e ExecuteError: ERROR 000732:

import os
import arcpy
arcpy.env.workspace = "C:/the shapefile folder/"

path = os.listdir("C:/the shapefile folder/")#unzipped all shapefiles to this folder
shapefile = []
for i in path:
    suffix = ".shp";
    if i.endswith(suffix):#getting all files end with '.shp' to a new list
        shapefile.append(i)
arcpy.Merge_management(shapefile,"C:/output folder")

Where is the problem?

Answer 1

you need to provide an output feature class (e.g. "C:/outputfolder/newfc.shp" or "C:/outputfolder/geodatabase.gdb/newfc", if geodatabase.gdb already exists) and not an output folder (C:/outputfolder) for the merge tool.

Also check that your shapefile have a defined CRS, but the error probably comes from the above output.