Got another idea for taking care of that getting that field value. We just have the cursor only iterate through that field so when we set the cursor, set the feature class, then fields you want in brackets, if you needed more then one you can comma seperate each field name(they need to be strings and all inside the brackets). cursor = arcpy.SearchCursor(fc, ["distanceField"]). In the loop calling an index value on row will not refer back to the original field number i.e. if this was column 5 in your attribute table or index value 4, now it is index value 0(first one in the cursor). If you had another field you were going to iterate through with the cursor listed after this one(say ID field) that would be index value 1, etc. So I put in distance = int(row[0])*(multiplier)) in the for loop instead. # Name: Flight_Line_Buffer.py # Description: Creates area of Aerial Photography coverage based on digitized flight lines, and associated flight height field in flight line table. #Import system modules import arcpy from arcpy import env # Set environment settings env.workspace = "J:\Flight_Lines_GDB\Flight_Lines_Coverage.gdb" env.Outworkspace = "J:\Aerial_Photo_GDB\Aerial_Photography_Coverage.gdb" # Create buffer distance output from Flight Height field, and buffer flight lines PhotoCoverages = "J:\Aerial_Photo_GDB\Aerial_Photography_Coverage.gdb" fdOutput = "J:\Aerial_Photo_GDB\Aerial_Photography_Coverage.gdb" #fetches all feaure datasets in workspace into a list fdlist = arcpy.ListDatasets() # loop through feature datasets in the list for fd in fdlist: print fd #setting new workspace to the feature dataset we are using arcpy.CopyManagement(fd , fdOutput + "/" + fd) env.workspace = fd # fetches all feature classes in workspace into a list fclist = arcpy.ListFeatureClasses() #loop through feature classes in our list for fc in fclist: FCOutput = fdOutput + "/" + fd distanceField = "Flight_Height" sideType = "FULL" endType = "FLAT" dissolveType = "NONE" multiplier = 1.502167099846 cursor = arcpy.SearchCursor(fc, ["distanceField"]) count = 1 for row in cursor: distance = float(row[0])*(multiplier)) arcpy.Buffer_analysis(fc, FCOutput + "/" + fc + "_Buffer" + str(count) , distance, sideType, endType, dissolveType) count += 1 del row del cursor