Updating rows with an UpdateCursor

If you need to edit or delete rows from a table or feature class, you can use UpdateCursor. As is the case with InsertCursor, the contents of UpdateCursor can be limited through the use of a where clause.

Getting ready

The UpdateCursor() function can be used to either update or delete rows in a table or feature class. The returned cursor places a lock on the data, which will automatically be released if used inside a Python with statement. An UpdateCursor object is returned from a call to this method.

The UpdateCursor object places a lock on the data while it's being edited or deleted. If the cursor is used inside a Python with statement, the lock will automatically be freed after the data has been processed. This hasn't always been the case. Previous versions of cursors were required to be manually released using the Python del statement. Once an instance of UpdateCursor has been obtained, you can then call the updateCursor() method to update records in...