Using Vector Layers¶

Retrieving information about attributes¶

You can retrieve information about the fields associated with a vector layer by calling pendingFields() on a QgsVectorLayer instance:

# "layer" is a QgsVectorLayer instance
for field in layer.pendingFields():
    print field.name(), field.typeName()

Selecting features¶

In QGIS desktop, features can be selected in different ways, the user can click on a feature, draw a rectangle on the map canvas or use an expression filter. Selected features are normally highlighted in a different color (default is yellow) to draw user’s attention on the selection. Sometimes can be useful to programmatically select features or to change the default color.

To change the selection color you can use setSelectionColor() method of QgsMapCanvas as shown in the following example:

iface.mapCanvas().setSelectionColor( QColor("red") )

To add add features to the selected features list for a given layer, you can call setSelectedFeatures() passing to it the list of features IDs:

# Get the active layer (must be a vector layer)
layer = iface.activeLayer()
# Get the first feature from the layer
feature = layer.getFeatures().next()
# Add this features to the selected list
layer.setSelectedFeatures([feature.id()])

To clear the selection, just pass an empty list:

layer.setSelectedFeatures([])

Iterating over Vector Layer¶

Iterating over the features in a vector layer is one of the most common tasks. Below is an example of the simple basic code to perform this task and showing some information about each feature. the layer variable is assumed to have a QgsVectorLayer object

iter = layer.getFeatures()
for feature in iter:
    # retrieve every feature with its geometry and attributes
    # fetch geometry
    geom = feature.geometry()
    print "Feature ID %d: " % feature.id()

    # show some information about the feature
    if geom.type() == QGis.Point:
        x = geom.asPoint()
        print "Point: " + str(x)
    elif geom.type() == QGis.Line:
        x = geom.asPolyline()
        print "Line: %d points" % len(x)
    elif geom.type() == QGis.Polygon:
        x = geom.asPolygon()
        numPts = 0
        for ring in x:
            numPts += len(ring)
        print "Polygon: %d rings with %d points" % (len(x), numPts)
    else:
        print "Unknown"

    # fetch attributes
    attrs = feature.attributes()

    # attrs is a list. It contains all the attribute values of this feature
    print attrs

print feature['name']

print feature[0]

selection = layer.selectedFeatures()
print len(selection)
for feature in selection:
    # do whatever you need with the feature

import processing
features = processing.features(layer)
for feature in features:
    # do whatever you need with the feature

request = QgsFeatureRequest()
request.setFilterRect(areaOfInterest)
for feature in layer.getFeatures(request):
    # do whatever you need with the feature

request = QgsFeatureRequest()
request.setLimit(2)
for feature in layer.getFeatures(request):
    # loop through only 2 features

# The expression will filter the features where the field "location_name"
# contains the word "Lake" (case insensitive)
exp = QgsExpression('location_name ILIKE \'%Lake%\'')
request = QgsFeatureRequest(exp)

# Only return selected fields
request.setSubsetOfAttributes([0,2])
# More user friendly version
request.setSubsetOfAttributes(['name','id'],layer.pendingFields())
# Don't return geometry objects
request.setFlags(QgsFeatureRequest.NoGeometry)

Modifying Vector Layers¶

Most vector data providers support editing of layer data. Sometimes they support just a subset of possible editing actions. Use the capabilities() function to find out what set of functionality is supported

caps = layer.dataProvider().capabilities()
# Check if a particular capability is supported:
caps & QgsVectorDataProvider.DeleteFeatures
# Print 2 if DeleteFeatures is supported

For a list of all available capabilities, please refer to the API Documentation of QgsVectorDataProvider

To print layer’s capabilities textual description in a comma separated list you can use capabilitiesString() as in the following example:

caps_string = layer.dataProvider().capabilitiesString()
# Print:
# u'Add Features, Delete Features, Change Attribute Values,
# Add Attributes, Delete Attributes, Create Spatial Index,
# Fast Access to Features at ID, Change Geometries,
# Simplify Geometries with topological validation'

By using any of the following methods for vector layer editing, the changes are directly committed to the underlying data store (a file, database etc). In case you would like to do only temporary changes, skip to the next section that explains how to do modifications with editing buffer.

# If caching is enabled, a simple canvas refresh might not be sufficient
# to trigger a redraw and you must clear the cached image for the layer
if iface.mapCanvas().isCachingEnabled():
    layer.setCacheImage(None)
else:
    iface.mapCanvas().refresh()

if caps & QgsVectorDataProvider.AddFeatures:
    feat = QgsFeature(layer.pendingFields())
    feat.setAttributes([0, 'hello'])
    # Or set a single attribute by key or by index:
    feat.setAttribute('name', 'hello')
    feat.setAttribute(0, 'hello')
    feat.setGeometry(QgsGeometry.fromPoint(QgsPoint(123, 456)))
    (res, outFeats) = layer.dataProvider().addFeatures([feat])

if caps & QgsVectorDataProvider.DeleteFeatures:
    res = layer.dataProvider().deleteFeatures([5, 10])

fid = 100   # ID of the feature we will modify

if caps & QgsVectorDataProvider.ChangeAttributeValues:
    attrs = { 0 : "hello", 1 : 123 }
    layer.dataProvider().changeAttributeValues({ fid : attrs })

if caps & QgsVectorDataProvider.ChangeGeometries:
    geom = QgsGeometry.fromPoint(QgsPoint(111,222))
    layer.dataProvider().changeGeometryValues({ fid : geom })

from PyQt4.QtCore import QVariant

if caps & QgsVectorDataProvider.AddAttributes:
    res = layer.dataProvider().addAttributes(
        [QgsField("mytext", QVariant.String),
        QgsField("myint", QVariant.Int)])

if caps & QgsVectorDataProvider.DeleteAttributes:
    res = layer.dataProvider().deleteAttributes([0])

layer.updateFields()

Modifying Vector Layers with an Editing Buffer¶

When editing vectors within QGIS application, you have to first start editing mode for a particular layer, then do some modifications and finally commit (or rollback) the changes. All the changes you do are not written until you commit them — they stay in layer’s in-memory editing buffer. It is possible to use this functionality also programmatically — it is just another method for vector layer editing that complements the direct usage of data providers. Use this option when providing some GUI tools for vector layer editing, since this will allow user to decide whether to commit/rollback and allows the usage of undo/redo. When committing changes, all changes from the editing buffer are saved to data provider.

To find out whether a layer is in editing mode, use isEditable() — the editing functions work only when the editing mode is turned on. Usage of editing functions

from PyQt4.QtCore import QVariant

# add two features (QgsFeature instances)
layer.addFeatures([feat1,feat2])
# delete a feature with specified ID
layer.deleteFeature(fid)

# set new geometry (QgsGeometry instance) for a feature
layer.changeGeometry(fid, geometry)
# update an attribute with given field index (int) to given value (QVariant)
layer.changeAttributeValue(fid, fieldIndex, value)

# add new field
layer.addAttribute(QgsField("mytext", QVariant.String))
# remove a field
layer.deleteAttribute(fieldIndex)

In order to make undo/redo work properly, the above mentioned calls have to be wrapped into undo commands. (If you do not care about undo/redo and want to have the changes stored immediately, then you will have easier work by editing with data provider.) How to use the undo functionality

layer.beginEditCommand("Feature triangulation")

# ... call layer's editing methods ...

if problem_occurred:
  layer.destroyEditCommand()
  return

# ... more editing ...

layer.endEditCommand()

The beginEditCommand() will create an internal “active” command and will record subsequent changes in vector layer. With the call to endEditCommand() the command is pushed onto the undo stack and the user will be able to undo/redo it from GUI. In case something went wrong while doing the changes, the destroyEditCommand() method will remove the command and rollback all changes done while this command was active.

To start editing mode, there is startEditing() method, to stop editing there are commitChanges() and rollBack() — however normally you should not need these methods and leave this functionality to be triggered by the user.

You can also use the with edit(layer)-statement to wrap commit and rollback into a more semantic code block as shown in the example below:

with edit(layer):
  feat = layer.getFeatures().next()
  feat[0] = 5
  layer.updateFeature(feat)

This will automatically call commitChanges() in the end. If any exception occurs, it will rollBack() all the changes. In case a problem is encountered within commitChanges() (when the method returns False) a QgsEditError exception will be raised.

Using Spatial Index¶

Spatial indexes can dramatically improve the performance of your code if you need to do frequent queries to a vector layer. Imagine, for instance, that you are writing an interpolation algorithm, and that for a given location you need to know the 10 closest points from a points layer, in order to use those point for calculating the interpolated value. Without a spatial index, the only way for QGIS to find those 10 points is to compute the distance from each and every point to the specified location and then compare those distances. This can be a very time consuming task, especially if it needs to be repeated for several locations. If a spatial index exists for the layer, the operation is much more effective.

Think of a layer without a spatial index as a telephone book in which telephone numbers are not ordered or indexed. The only way to find the telephone number of a given person is to read from the beginning until you find it.

Spatial indexes are not created by default for a QGIS vector layer, but you can create them easily. This is what you have to do:

• create spatial index — the following code creates an empty index

  index = QgsSpatialIndex()
  

• add features to index — index takes QgsFeature object and adds it to the internal data structure. You can create the object manually or use one from previous call to provider’s nextFeature()

  index.insertFeature(feat)
  

• alternatively, you can load all features of a layer at once using bulk loading

  index = QgsSpatialIndex(layer.getFeatures())
  

• once spatial index is filled with some values, you can do some queries

  # returns array of feature IDs of five nearest features
  nearest = index.nearestNeighbor(QgsPoint(25.4, 12.7), 5)
  
  # returns array of IDs of features which intersect the rectangle
  intersect = index.intersects(QgsRectangle(22.5, 15.3, 23.1, 17.2))
  

Writing Vector Layers¶

You can write vector layer files using QgsVectorFileWriter class. It supports any other kind of vector file that OGR supports (shapefiles, GeoJSON, KML and others).

There are two possibilities how to export a vector layer:

• from an instance of QgsVectorLayer

  error = QgsVectorFileWriter.writeAsVectorFormat(layer, "my_shapes.shp", "CP1250", None, "ESRI Shapefile")
  
  if error == QgsVectorFileWriter.NoError:
      print "success!"
  
  error = QgsVectorFileWriter.writeAsVectorFormat(layer, "my_json.json", "utf-8", None, "GeoJSON")
  if error == QgsVectorFileWriter.NoError:
      print "success again!"
  

  The third parameter specifies output text encoding. Only some drivers need this for correct operation - shapefiles are one of those — however in case you are not using international characters you do not have to care much about the encoding. The fourth parameter that we left as None may specify destination CRS — if a valid instance of QgsCoordinateReferenceSystem is passed, the layer is transformed to that CRS.

  For valid driver names please consult the supported formats by OGR — you should pass the value in the “Code” column as the driver name. Optionally you can set whether to export only selected features, pass further driver-specific options for creation or tell the writer not to create attributes — look into the documentation for full syntax.

• directly from features

  from PyQt4.QtCore import QVariant
  
  # define fields for feature attributes. A QgsFields object is needed
  fields = QgsFields()
  fields.append(QgsField("first", QVariant.Int))
  fields.append(QgsField("second", QVariant.String))
  
  """ create an instance of vector file writer, which will create the vector file.
  Arguments:
  1. path to new file (will fail if exists already)
  2. encoding of the attributes
  3. field map
  4. geometry type - from WKBTYPE enum
  5. layer's spatial reference (instance of
     QgsCoordinateReferenceSystem) - optional
  6. driver name for the output file """
  writer = QgsVectorFileWriter("my_shapes.shp", "CP1250", fields, QGis.WKBPoint, None, "ESRI Shapefile")
  
  if writer.hasError() != QgsVectorFileWriter.NoError:
      print "Error when creating shapefile: ",  w.errorMessage()
  
  # add a feature
  fet = QgsFeature()
  fet.setGeometry(QgsGeometry.fromPoint(QgsPoint(10,10)))
  fet.setAttributes([1, "text"])
  writer.addFeature(fet)
  
  # delete the writer to flush features to disk
  del writer
  

Memory Provider¶

Memory provider is intended to be used mainly by plugin or 3rd party app developers. It does not store data on disk, allowing developers to use it as a fast backend for some temporary layers.

The provider supports string, int and double fields.

The memory provider also supports spatial indexing, which is enabled by calling the provider’s createSpatialIndex() function. Once the spatial index is created you will be able to iterate over features within smaller regions faster (since it’s not necessary to traverse all the features, only those in specified rectangle).

A memory provider is created by passing "memory" as the provider string to the QgsVectorLayer constructor.

The constructor also takes a URI defining the geometry type of the layer, one of: "Point", "LineString", "Polygon", "MultiPoint", "MultiLineString", or "MultiPolygon".

The URI can also specify the coordinate reference system, fields, and indexing of the memory provider in the URI. The syntax is:

crs=definition

Specifies the coordinate reference system, where definition may be any of the forms accepted by QgsCoordinateReferenceSystem.createFromString()

index=yes

Specifies that the provider will use a spatial index

field=name:type(length,precision)

Specifies an attribute of the layer. The attribute has a name, and optionally a type (integer, double, or string), length, and precision. There may be multiple field definitions.

The following example of a URI incorporates all these options

"Point?crs=epsg:4326&field=id:integer&field=name:string(20)&index=yes"

The following example code illustrates creating and populating a memory provider

from PyQt4.QtCore import QVariant

# create layer
vl = QgsVectorLayer("Point", "temporary_points", "memory")
pr = vl.dataProvider()

# add fields
pr.addAttributes([QgsField("name", QVariant.String),
                    QgsField("age",  QVariant.Int),
                    QgsField("size", QVariant.Double)])
vl.updateFields() # tell the vector layer to fetch changes from the provider

# add a feature
fet = QgsFeature()
fet.setGeometry(QgsGeometry.fromPoint(QgsPoint(10,10)))
fet.setAttributes(["Johny", 2, 0.3])
pr.addFeatures([fet])

# update layer's extent when new features have been added
# because change of extent in provider is not propagated to the layer
vl.updateExtents()

Finally, let’s check whether everything went well

# show some stats
print "fields:", len(pr.fields())
print "features:", pr.featureCount()
e = layer.extent()
print "extent:", e.xMiniminum(), e.yMinimum(), e.xMaximum(), e.yMaximum()

# iterate over features
f = QgsFeature()
features = vl.getFeatures()
for f in features:
    print "F:", f.id(), f.attributes(), f.geometry().asPoint()

Appearance (Symbology) of Vector Layers¶

When a vector layer is being rendered, the appearance of the data is given by renderer and symbols associated with the layer. Symbols are classes which take care of drawing of visual representation of features, while renderers determine what symbol will be used for a particular feature.

The renderer for a given layer can obtained as shown below:

renderer = layer.rendererV2()

And with that reference, let us explore it a bit

print "Type:", rendererV2.type()

There are several known renderer types available in QGIS core library:

There might be also some custom renderer types, so never make an assumption there are just these types. You can query QgsRendererV2Registry singleton to find out currently available renderers:

print QgsRendererV2Registry.instance().renderersList()
# Print:
[u'singleSymbol',
u'categorizedSymbol',
u'graduatedSymbol',
u'RuleRenderer',
u'pointDisplacement',
u'invertedPolygonRenderer',
u'heatmapRenderer']

It is possible to obtain a dump of a renderer contents in text form — can be useful for debugging

print rendererV2.dump()

symbol = QgsMarkerSymbolV2.createSimple({'name': 'square', 'color': 'red'})
layer.rendererV2().setSymbol(symbol)

print layer.rendererV2().symbol().symbolLayers()[0].properties()
# Prints
{u'angle': u'0',
u'color': u'0,128,0,255',
u'horizontal_anchor_point': u'1',
u'name': u'circle',
u'offset': u'0,0',
u'offset_map_unit_scale': u'0,0',
u'offset_unit': u'MM',
u'outline_color': u'0,0,0,255',
u'outline_style': u'solid',
u'outline_width': u'0',
u'outline_width_map_unit_scale': u'0,0',
u'outline_width_unit': u'MM',
u'scale_method': u'area',
u'size': u'2',
u'size_map_unit_scale': u'0,0',
u'size_unit': u'MM',
u'vertical_anchor_point': u'1'}

# You can alter a single property...
layer.rendererV2().symbol().symbolLayer(0).setName('square')
# ... but not all properties are accessible from methods,
# you can also replace the symbol completely:
props = layer.rendererV2().symbol().symbolLayer(0).properties()
props['color'] = 'yellow'
props['name'] = 'square'
layer.rendererV2().setSymbol(QgsMarkerSymbolV2.createSimple(props))

for cat in rendererV2.categories():
    print "%s: %s :: %s" % (cat.value().toString(), cat.label(), str(cat.symbol()))

for ran in rendererV2.ranges():
    print "%f - %f: %s %s" % (
        ran.lowerValue(),
        ran.upperValue(),
        ran.label(),
        str(ran.symbol())
      )

from qgis.core import *

myVectorLayer = QgsVectorLayer(myVectorPath, myName, 'ogr')
myTargetField = 'target_field'
myRangeList = []
myOpacity = 1
# Make our first symbol and range...
myMin = 0.0
myMax = 50.0
myLabel = 'Group 1'
myColour = QtGui.QColor('#ffee00')
mySymbol1 = QgsSymbolV2.defaultSymbol(myVectorLayer.geometryType())
mySymbol1.setColor(myColour)
mySymbol1.setAlpha(myOpacity)
myRange1 = QgsRendererRangeV2(myMin, myMax, mySymbol1, myLabel)
myRangeList.append(myRange1)
#now make another symbol and range...
myMin = 50.1
myMax = 100
myLabel = 'Group 2'
myColour = QtGui.QColor('#00eeff')
mySymbol2 = QgsSymbolV2.defaultSymbol(
     myVectorLayer.geometryType())
mySymbol2.setColor(myColour)
mySymbol2.setAlpha(myOpacity)
myRange2 = QgsRendererRangeV2(myMin, myMax, mySymbol2 myLabel)
myRangeList.append(myRange2)
myRenderer = QgsGraduatedSymbolRendererV2('', myRangeList)
myRenderer.setMode(QgsGraduatedSymbolRendererV2.EqualInterval)
myRenderer.setClassAttribute(myTargetField)

myVectorLayer.setRendererV2(myRenderer)
QgsMapLayerRegistry.instance().addMapLayer(myVectorLayer)

for i in xrange(symbol.symbolLayerCount()):
    lyr = symbol.symbolLayer(i)
    print "%d: %s" % (i, lyr.layerType())

from qgis.core import QgsSymbolLayerV2Registry
myRegistry = QgsSymbolLayerV2Registry.instance()
myMetadata = myRegistry.symbolLayerMetadata("SimpleFill")
for item in myRegistry.symbolLayersForType(QgsSymbolV2.Marker):
    print item

EllipseMarker
FontMarker
SimpleMarker
SvgMarker
VectorField

class FooSymbolLayer(QgsMarkerSymbolLayerV2):

  def __init__(self, radius=4.0):
      QgsMarkerSymbolLayerV2.__init__(self)
      self.radius = radius
      self.color = QColor(255,0,0)

  def layerType(self):
     return "FooMarker"

  def properties(self):
      return { "radius" : str(self.radius) }

  def startRender(self, context):
    pass

  def stopRender(self, context):
      pass

  def renderPoint(self, point, context):
      # Rendering depends on whether the symbol is selected (QGIS >= 1.5)
      color = context.selectionColor() if context.selected() else self.color
      p = context.renderContext().painter()
      p.setPen(color)
      p.drawEllipse(point, self.radius, self.radius)

  def clone(self):
      return FooSymbolLayer(self.radius)

class FooSymbolLayerWidget(QgsSymbolLayerV2Widget):
    def __init__(self, parent=None):
        QgsSymbolLayerV2Widget.__init__(self, parent)

        self.layer = None

        # setup a simple UI
        self.label = QLabel("Radius:")
        self.spinRadius = QDoubleSpinBox()
        self.hbox = QHBoxLayout()
        self.hbox.addWidget(self.label)
        self.hbox.addWidget(self.spinRadius)
        self.setLayout(self.hbox)
        self.connect(self.spinRadius, SIGNAL("valueChanged(double)"), \
            self.radiusChanged)

    def setSymbolLayer(self, layer):
        if layer.layerType() != "FooMarker":
            return
        self.layer = layer
        self.spinRadius.setValue(layer.radius)

    def symbolLayer(self):
        return self.layer

    def radiusChanged(self, value):
        self.layer.radius = value
        self.emit(SIGNAL("changed()"))

class FooSymbolLayerMetadata(QgsSymbolLayerV2AbstractMetadata):

  def __init__(self):
    QgsSymbolLayerV2AbstractMetadata.__init__(self, "FooMarker", QgsSymbolV2.Marker)

  def createSymbolLayer(self, props):
    radius = float(props[QString("radius")]) if QString("radius") in props else 4.0
    return FooSymbolLayer(radius)

  def createSymbolLayerWidget(self):
    return FooSymbolLayerWidget()

QgsSymbolLayerV2Registry.instance().addSymbolLayerType(FooSymbolLayerMetadata())

import random

class RandomRenderer(QgsFeatureRendererV2):
  def __init__(self, syms=None):
    QgsFeatureRendererV2.__init__(self, "RandomRenderer")
    self.syms = syms if syms else [QgsSymbolV2.defaultSymbol(QGis.Point), QgsSymbolV2.defaultSymbol(QGis.Point)]

  def symbolForFeature(self, feature):
    return random.choice(self.syms)

  def startRender(self, context, vlayer):
    for s in self.syms:
      s.startRender(context)

  def stopRender(self, context):
    for s in self.syms:
      s.stopRender(context)

  def usedAttributes(self):
    return []

  def clone(self):
    return RandomRenderer(self.syms)

class RandomRendererWidget(QgsRendererV2Widget):
  def __init__(self, layer, style, renderer):
    QgsRendererV2Widget.__init__(self, layer, style)
    if renderer is None or renderer.type() != "RandomRenderer":
      self.r = RandomRenderer()
    else:
      self.r = renderer
    # setup UI
    self.btn1 = QgsColorButtonV2()
    self.btn1.setColor(self.r.syms[0].color())
    self.vbox = QVBoxLayout()
    self.vbox.addWidget(self.btn1)
    self.setLayout(self.vbox)
    self.connect(self.btn1, SIGNAL("clicked()"), self.setColor1)

  def setColor1(self):
    color = QColorDialog.getColor(self.r.syms[0].color(), self)
    if not color.isValid(): return
    self.r.syms[0].setColor(color);
    self.btn1.setColor(self.r.syms[0].color())

  def renderer(self):
    return self.r

class RandomRendererMetadata(QgsRendererV2AbstractMetadata):
  def __init__(self):
    QgsRendererV2AbstractMetadata.__init__(self, "RandomRenderer", "Random renderer")

  def createRenderer(self, element):
    return RandomRenderer()
  def createRendererWidget(self, layer, style, renderer):
    return RandomRendererWidget(layer, style, renderer)

QgsRendererV2Registry.instance().addRenderer(RandomRendererMetadata())

QgsRendererV2AbstractMetadata.__init__(self,
       "RandomRenderer",
       "Random renderer",
       QIcon(QPixmap("RandomRendererIcon.png", "png")))

Further Topics¶

TODO:

• creating/modifying symbols
• working with style (QgsStyleV2)
• working with color ramps (QgsVectorColorRampV2)
• rule-based renderer (see this blogpost)
• exploring symbol layer and renderer registries