Getting started with arcpy in R is easy. If you’re
using ArcGIS Pro, you’ll first need to create a Conda environment that
will link to your ArcGIS Pro install. If you’re not familiar with Conda
or the reticulate
package, check the vignettes Calling
Python from R and Python
Version Configuration.
For example, here’s how you would create a Conda environment to link to an ArcGIS Pro 3.1 install.
library(arcpy)
install_arcpy(version = "3.1")If you don’t specify the python version, the package will use the latest compatible Python version based on what is reported in the arcpy module build. By default, the package creates a new environment named “r-arcpy”, but this can be overridden.
arcpy automatically provides a reticulate
module object called arcpy. This object provides the
interface to ArcGIS.
arcpy## Module(arcpy)
arcpy$GetInstallInfo()$ProductName## [1] "ArcGISPro"Once you are connected to your ArcGIS installation, using
arcpy functions and classes is as seamless as using any
other Python module via reticulate.
# get and set the arcpy environment
arcpy$env$workspace = tempdir()
arcpy$env$workspace## [1] "C:\\Temp\\1\\RtmpGWDuu8"arcpy also re-exports reticulate’s
py_help function so that you can access the
arcpy documentation.
# get help on arcpy functions
py_help(arcpy$Exists)Happy scripting!