Take the 2-minute tour ×

After using the find duplicates in arcmap 10, I want to check if the feat sequence ("find duplicates" marks all records with the same attributes with the same number [in "feat_seq"] and creates a ROWID_ that has unique numbers for each record) is the same in the cell above and below and record and if it is the same then mark the duplicate/triplicate etc as "1", if not mark with 0.

The logic we used in excel is =IF(OR(C1=C2,C3=C2),1,0)

If c2 = c1 or c2 =c3, give the cell a value of 1, if not, give the cell a value of 0. Used to identify duplicate values that are in order. If the cell above or below is the same as the cell in question, give the cell a value of 1. If not, give the cell a value of 0.

The code I started to write was

import arcpy
rows = arcpy.UpdateCursor("TestDuplicateID")

for row in rows:
    rowPost= row.next()
    rowPre= # how can we get this?

    if rowCur.getValue("FEAT_SEQ")==row.getValue("FEAT_SEQ"):
        rowCur.setValue("Dups", "1")
    elif rowCur.getValue("FEAT_SEQ")==rowPre.getValue("FEAT_SEQ"):
        rowCur.setValue("Dups", "1")

I can't seem to find a way to retain the PRE record and get the following error "Runtime error : unsupported operand type(s) for -: 'Row' and 'int'".

Thanks for your help

share|improve this question

2 Answers 2

Cursors can be tricky, since they only look at one row at a time, and don't like to bounce around arbitrarily. I would sweep through your table twice: once with a SearchCursor, and second with an UpdateCursor.

import arcpy
rows = arcpy.SearchCursor("TestDuplicateID")

# Get first two values
v0 = rows.next().FEAT_SEQ
v1 = rows.next().FEAT_SEQ
# First comparison
unique = [v0 == v1]
# Compare middle rows
for row in rows:
    v2 = row.FEAT_SEQ
    # Middle comparisons
    unique.append(v0 == v1 or v1 == v2)
    # Shift values for next loop
    v0, v1 = v1, v2
# Last comparison
unique.append(v0 == v1)

# Copy the results back to table
rows = arcpy.UpdateCursor("TestDuplicateID")
for i, row in enumerate(rows):
    row.Dups = int(unique[i])
share|improve this answer
Sorry for the late reply - I get the following error - IOError: TestDuplicateID File "D:\SCRATCH\Projects\script_tests\test_dups.py", line 2, in <module> rows = arcpy.SearchCursor("TestDuplicateID") File "C:\Program Files (x86)\ArcGIS\Desktop10.0\arcpy\arcpy_init_.py", line 820, in SearchCursor return gp.searchCursor(*args) File "C:\Program Files (x86)\ArcGIS\Desktop10.0\arcpy\arcpy\geoprocessing_base.py", line 357, in searchCursor self._gp.SearchCursor(*gp_fixargs(args))) –  GeorgeC Feb 2 '12 at 0:33
import arcpy
rows = arcpy.UpdateCursor("TestDuplicateID")

for row in rows:
    rowPost= row.next()
    if not rowprev: 'force check to see if rowprev is null (it would be on the first run through the procedure)
        rowprev blah
        rowcur blah
        rownext blah

    'put this in at the end, so when the first row is through, this gets populated with it
    rowprev = row
share|improve this answer
thanks but where is rowprev defined? –  GeorgeC Jan 19 '12 at 23:04
Right at the end : rowprev = row - You cant have a row previous for the first row, so you put it at the end and ignore the first row. –  Hairy Jan 20 '12 at 8:35

Your Answer


