Summary
The Describe function returns the following properties for all Describe objects.
Properties
| Property | Explanation | Data Type |
| baseName (Read Only) | The file base name | String |
| catalogPath (Read Only) | The path of the data | String |
| children (Read Only) | A list of sub elements | Describe |
| childrenExpanded (Read Only) | Indicates whether the children have been expanded | Boolean |
| dataElementType (Read Only) | The element type of the element | String |
| dataType (Read Only) | The type of the element | String |
| extension (Read Only) | The file extension | String |
| file (Read Only) | The file name | String |
| fullPropsRetrieved (Read Only) | Indicates whether full properties have been retrieved | Boolean |
| metadataRetrieved (Read Only) | Indicates whether the metadata has been retrieved | Boolean |
| name (Read Only) | The user-assigned name for the element | String |
| path (Read Only) | The file path | String |
Code sample
Display some Describe object properties for a file geodatabase.
import arcpy
# Create a Describe object
#
desc = arcpy.Describe("C:/Data/chesapeake.gdb")
# Print some Describe Object properties
#
if hasattr(desc, "name"):
print "Name: " + desc.name
if hasattr(desc, "dataType"):
print "DataType: " + desc.dataType
if hasattr(desc, "catalogPath"):
print "CatalogPath: " + desc.catalogPath
# Examine children and print their name and dataType
#
print "Children:"
for child in desc.children:
print "\t%s = %s" % (child.name, child.dataType)