Accessing a dataset

Geoprocessing tools run on datasets, and instead of blindly passing data to a tool, you as a developer should make sure the data is in place and ready for processing.

The data must exist and be valid, and any properties of that dataset the tool needs to handle should be taken care of as special cases. Fields in the data that the tool uses must exist, and names to different tables and fields must be properly passed to the tool.

If the output of the tool's execution is an in-memory layer, this section in the software development kit (SDK) also teaches how to get a cursor to the contained features.