Function and demo to Use ArcPy Search Cursors to loop through a layer and clip other layers by each feature in that layer

clip_layers_by_other_layers.py

# Note: this script is designed to run with Python 3 and ArcGIS Pro ArcPy

# import modules
# arcpy => provides access to Esri ArcGIS Pro 
# os => provides convient way to construct file paths
# sys => provides way to capture errors
# re => used for snake case helper function (taken from https://www.30secondsofcode.org/python/s/snake)
import arcpy, os, sys
from re import sub

# replace dashes and spaces with underscore
# values in a "Name" field are used to create the name of an ouptu feature class
def format_name(s):    
    # return formatted value
    return '_'.join(
    sub('([A-Z][a-z]+)', r' \1',
    sub('([A-Z]+)', r' \1',
    s.replace('-', ' '))).split())
# end function

# function to loop through a feature class, and clip another feature class by each record in feature class being looped through
def clip_layers(layer_to_be_clipped, clipping_layer, clipping_layer_fields, output_location, output_layer_name):
    # create feature layer on "clipping_layer"
    # you need to create a feature layer to use select by attribute or select by location functions
    arcpy.MakeFeatureLayer_management(clipping_layer, 'clippingLayer')

    # open search cursor on "clipping_layer"
    # provides a way to move through each record in the "clipping_layer"
    with arcpy.da.SearchCursor(clipping_layer, clipping_layer_fields) as cursor:
        for row in cursor:
            # where clause to select each feature in cursor for clip
            where_clause = "OBJECTID = {}".format(row[0])
            # select current feature in cursor
            arcpy.SelectLayerByAttribute_management('clippingLayer', 'NEW_SELECTION', where_clause)

            # replace dashes and spaces with underscore for "name" value 
            # in this demo, row[1] represents the "name" field
            # i.e., "Trout Run" => "Trout_Run"
            feature_name = format_name(row[1])

            # output name for clipped features
            # i.e., if output layer is LandUse_2019, then output_name = "LandUse_2019_Trout_Run"
            output_name = r'{}_{}'.format(output_layer_name, feature_name)
            
            # clip analysis
            # i.e., clip the streams layer by the land use layer
            arcpy.Clip_analysis(layer_to_be_clipped, 'clippingLayer', os.path.join(output_location, output_name))

            # print message to console
            print('Clipped features for watershed "{}"'.format(row[1]))
    
    # delete feature layer
    # do this or your get an error
    arcpy.management.Delete('clippingLayer')
# end function

try:
    # file geodatabase to put output of analyses
    out_gdb = r'Some Path\To\A\Project\A Cool Project.gdb'

    # HUC-12 watersheds layer
    watersheds_layer = os.path.join(out_gdb, 'Watersheds_Small')
    # fields for search cursor
    watersheds_layer_fields = watersheds_layer_fields = ['OBJECTID', 'NAME']

    # Land Use layer
    land_use_layer = r'Some\Path\To\SDE_Connections\someUser@DatabaseName on Some Server.sde\DatabaseName.Some_LandUse'    

    # streams layer
    streams_layer = r'Some\Path\to\Streams.gdb\Streams'

    # print message to console
    print('Running clip on "Land Use" layer')

    # run clip on land use
    clip_layers(land_use_layer, watersheds_layer, watersheds_layer_fields, out_gdb, 'LandUse_2019')

    # print message to console
    print('Completed clip on "Land Use" layer')    
    print('Running clip on "Streams Polyline" layer')

    # run clip on streams polyline
    clip_layers(streams_layer, watersheds_layer, watersheds_layer_fields, out_gdb, 'Streams')
    
    # print message to console
    print('Completed clip on "Streams Polyline" layer')
# If an error occurs running geoprocessing tool(s) capture error and write message
# handle error outside of Python system
except EnvironmentError as e:
    tbE = sys.exc_info()[2]
    # Write the line number the error occured to the log file
    print("Failed at Line {}".format(tbE.tb_lineno))
    # Write the error message to the log file
    print("Error: {}".format(str(e)))
except Exception as e:
    # If an error occurred, write line number and error message to log
    tb = sys.exc_info()[2]
    print("Failed at Line {}".format(tb.tb_lineno))
    print("Error: {}".format(e))