Adding custom Feature attributes to ESRI Shapefile with Python

Question

I am seeking a way to take an existing ESRI Shapefile that has a Feature set of 200 countries. Each country Feature has an attribute of "NAME." My objective is to create a Python script that adds an arbitrary (for now) additional attribute, say, "POPULATION".

Of course I have the OSGeo and GeoDjango modules installed. I'm as far as:

from osgeo import ogr

infile = ogr.Open('sample.shp', 1) #'sample.shp' is a pre-existing ESRI shapefile described above
inlyr = infile.GetLayerByIndex(0)

Am I missing an OGR function that will allow me to insert Feature attribute fields into an existing Shapefile?

score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 23 '10 at 10:25

7

To add a field you have to create an OGRFieldDefn and then call inlyr.CreateField

fieldDefn = ogr.FieldDefn('POPULATION', ogr.OFTReal) 
fieldDefn.SetWidth(14) 
fieldDefn.SetPrecision(6)
inlyr.CreateField(fieldDefn)

answered Nov 23 '10 at 10:25

Samuel

1,374
10
15

Then subsequent to this do I need to call a Destroy() to write the data? – mattdeboard Nov 23 '10 at 18:07
2

To close the file it is recommended to use `infile = None` – Mike T Mar 20 '11 at 23:02
What if you want the field you are creating to be of the `string` type? – FaCoffee Feb 15 '17 at 12:17
1

Found the answer myself: http://www.gdal.org/ogr__core_8h.html#a787194bea637faf12d61643124a7c9fc – FaCoffee Feb 15 '17 at 12:22

Adding custom Feature attributes to ESRI Shapefile with Python

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