To copy shapefiles from multiple folders into a single geodatabase, you could do this:
import arcpy
import os
ws = #path to input folder
dst = #path to output geodatabase
for dirpath, dirnames, filenames in arcpy.da.Walk(ws,datatype="FeatureClass"):
for file in filenames:
print file
filepath = os.path.join(dirpath,file)
outpath = os.path.join(dst,file[:-4]) #drops the .shp extension
arcpy.CopyFeatures_management(filepath,outpath)
The good news is you can achieve this without 'learning' Python coding. The bad news is, you still need to use Python code!
Open a fresh instance of ArcMap, go to the Geoprocessing menu and select Python. This will open the Python window. Since there are so many datasets to be added (and therefore drawn), I recommend pausing the data view before proceeding.
Type the following code into the Python window. Make sure you indent your code in the same way (use four spaces for a single indent, 8 for a double etc). You will need to replace the path C:/DATA with the path of your base folder, making sure you use forward slashes "/" in the path rather than backslashes (don't ask or you will be learning coding!). You will need to replace the text WATERBODY with some other characters which occur in the filename of every waterbody dataset (do this in CAPTIALS). Once you've altered the path, press Enter
import os
mxd = arcpy.mapping.MapDocument("CURRENT")
df = arcpy.mapping.ListDataFrames(mxd)[0]
workspace = "C:/DATA" #place the path to your data inside the quote marks, remembering to use forward slashes
feature_classes = []
walk = arcpy.da.Walk(workspace, datatype="FeatureClass", type="Polygon")
for dirpath, dirnames, filenames in walk:
for filename in filenames:
feature_classes.append(os.path.join(dirpath, filename))
for dataset in feature_classes:
dataset = dataset.upper()
if "WATERBODY" in dataset:
add_layer = arcpy.mapping.Layer(dataset)
arcpy.mapping.AddLayer(df, add_layer)
Your computer might have to think about thinks for a few seconds/minutes. Once it has finished, you should have all the datasets which are located within that folder and sub-folders, shown in the Table of Contents. Now it's up to you what you want to do with them!
Best Answer
You can do this without Python or QGIS if you have GDAL/OGR installed:
ogr2ogr -update -append first.shp second.shpThis will add all the features in
second.shptofirst.shp(good idea to back upfirst.shpbefore running this).You can write a script to run this command once for all the files you have in your directory.