Martyn,
Thanks for this. I am trying to do as you suggest, but am failing, I believe. This is what I have done:
(1) Open ArcMap (10.4) and Catalog pane; (2) Right-click the Make Feature Layer tool entry in the list of System Toolboxes, and click Open; (3) Drag the relevant feature class from the Catalog pane and drop it into the Input Features box - the Output Layer box is populated automatically; (4) Since I am not using a WHERE clause, I then click OK (by the way, is the WHERE clause what you mean when you say, "the working statement you wish to use for selection"?); (5) I check the run log (is this what you mean when you say the "results window"?) and find that the tool has run successfully (the log is appended below).
At this point I am trying to understand what you mean when you say, "right-click on the tool run". Since right-clicking on the log has no effect, I guess that you mean that I should right-click on the entry in the Catalog pane for the tool that I have just run, namely, Make Feature Layer. Well, I do this, but no Python snippet appears - the closest I can get to this are the examples given in the documentation - I am pretty certain you don't mean those.
Here is the run log:
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Executing: MakeFeatureLayer "C:\Users\Stephen Tucker\Documents\ArcGIS\scratch.gdb\CBM_A4_L_FC_1" CBM_A4_L_FC_1_Layer1 # # "OBJECTID OBJECTID VISIBLE NONE;Shape Shape VISIBLE NONE;FID_CBM_A1_L_FC_1 FID_CBM_A1_L_FC_1 VISIBLE NONE;LONG_ LONG_ VISIBLE NONE;LAT LAT VISIBLE NONE;ETH_NO ETH_NO VISIBLE NONE;ETH_LG_R ETH_LG_R VISIBLE NONE;ID ID VISIBLE NONE;Sensitivity Sensitivity VISIBLE NONE;Widespread Widespread VISIBLE NONE;ISO_LANGUAGE_CODE_ID ISO_LANGUAGE_CODE_ID VISIBLE NONE;COUNTRY_ISO_3DIGIT COUNTRY_ISO_3DIGIT VISIBLE NONE;COUNTRY_ISO_ALPHA_2 COUNTRY_ISO_ALPHA_2 VISIBLE NONE;FID_CBM_L2_L_FC_1 FID_CBM_L2_L_FC_1 VISIBLE NONE;FID_CBM_A1_L_FC_12 FID_CBM_A1_L_FC_12 VISIBLE NONE;LONG1 LONG1 VISIBLE NONE;LAT_1 LAT_1 VISIBLE NONE;ETH_NO_1 ETH_NO_1 VISIBLE NONE;ETH_LG_R_1 ETH_LG_R_1 VISIBLE NONE;ID_1 ID_1 VISIBLE NONE;Sensitivity_1 Sensitivity_1 VISIBLE NONE;Widespread_1 Widespread_1 VISIBLE NONE;ISO_LANGUAGE_CODE_ID_1 ISO_LANGUAGE_CODE_ID_1 VISIBLE NONE;COUNTRY_ISO_3DIGIT_1 COUNTRY_ISO_3DIGIT_1 VISIBLE NONE;COUNTRY_ISO_ALPHA_23 COUNTRY_ISO_ALPHA_23 VISIBLE NONE;CENTROID_X CENTROID_X VISIBLE NONE;CENTROID_Y CENTROID_Y VISIBLE NONE;ORIG_FID ORIG_FID VISIBLE NONE;Shape_Length Shape_Length VISIBLE NONE;Shape_Area Shape_Area VISIBLE NONE"
Start Time: Tue Jan 08 10:41:36 2019
Succeeded at Tue Jan 08 10:41:36 2019 (Elapsed Time: 0.73 seconds)
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I am getting the impression that my original problem is being caused by what I will call the ModelBuilder Interpreter. (that is, the software that takes a model and runs it.) I am hoping that I can get round this by exporting to a Python script the model that is using the Make Feature Layer tool. I have already done that with another troublesome model and the Python worked OK. (This other model is intended to copy a feature class from the scratch GDB to a file geodatabase - the problem was that when it ran the Calculate Value tool, the message "No current record." was provoked.)
Eventually I will be needing to export the whole model-based system to Python anyway so that it can be run on other team members' computers.