Layouts can contain a large number of elements, many of which you won't need for a particular geoprocessing script. The ListLayoutElements()
function can restrict the layout elements returned by passing in a parameter that defines the type of element that should be returned along with an optional wildcard, which finds elements using a portion of the name.
There are many different types of layout elements including graphics, legends, pictures, text, and data frames. When you return a list of layout elements, you can restrict (filter) the types of elements that are returned. In this recipe, you will write a script that filters the layout elements returned by element type and wildcard.