Identify lines starting from the same point and select the one with the shortest length.

Question

I have multiple polylines in a layer. I want to do the following:

* I want to identify those lines that have the same starting point (I have x and y coordinates in the attribute table),
* Then check another attribute (say length) for each line and select the line that has the shortest length
* I want to do this for all the lines in the layer and add to the selection each time the above criteria is met until all lines in the layer are completed.

Please see attached attribute table.

Thanks

2019-05-18_shortest_dist_near_WaterBody_for GeoNet.xlsx

Profile-400px-20141125-MicahC-2565-001.jpg

DanPatterson_Retired · Accepted Answer

In your case, you can use Summary Statistics—Help | ArcGIS Desktop with the 'FROM_X' field as the case field and the 'Length' field as the statistics field with Minimum as the statistics. The reason I say this is that your coordinates for the FROM_X field have a fixed precision and there is no minor variations within a group. Alternately, if you have large datasets and want to do this with multiple "Case" fields or combinations of them, then you can use python/numpy. The example below just replicates Summary Statistics as an example. So go with the above if you just need the answer for this situation, but keep the following in mind for more complex questions ---------------------------------------------- Option 2 ----------- You need ArcGIS Pro I used the attached script, which is compilation of numpy functions that I use. The excel spreadsheet was converted to a numpy array The data were "split_sorted_sliced" then the minimum value ... I hope.... was extracted from each unique grouping. array([( 1, 'Polyline', 4177356.51, 2815988.01, 4173411.99, 2814113.01, 12.65), ( 2, 'Polyline', 4177356.51, 2815988.01, 4174411.99, 2812613.01, 13.28), ( 3, 'Polyline', 4214933.63, 2815989.74, 4217586.99, 2813163.01, 17.79), ( 4, 'Polyline', 4214933.63, 2815989.74, 4210935.83, 2814898.57, 24.08), ( 5, 'Polyline', 4214933.63, 2815989.74, 4218211.99, 2813288.01, 19.05), ..., (3625, 'Polyline', 4166440.23, 2727503.75, 4163711.99, 2726938.01, 5.2 ), (3626, 'Polyline', 4166440.23, 2727503.75, 4165011.99, 2730038.01, 6.85), (3627, 'Polyline', 4166440.23, 2727503.75, 4165536.99, 2730613.01, 8.06), (3628, 'Polyline', 4166440.23, 2727503.75, 4166013.03, 2731025.21, 9.76), (3629, 'Polyline', 4166440.23, 2727503.75, 4162886.99, 2726938.01, 6.73)], dtype=[('OID__', '), ('Shape__', '), ('FROM_X', '), ('FROM_Y', '), ('TO_X', '), ('TO_Y', '), ('Length', ')])‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍ The results were then saved to a *.csv file (also attached) which you can do with as you want. OID__ Shape__ FROM_X FROM_Y TO_X TO_Y Length ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 000 2547 Polyline 4141898.41 2745970.71 4141698.92 2746600.77 6.19 001 1079 Polyline 4142006.51 2780288.01 4141767.70 2781554.52 11.23 002 2167 Polyline 4142330.62 2757361.91 4141746.65 2757429.66 45.22 003 759 Polyline 4142820.83 2784738.96 4142436.99 2783063.01 18.13 004 1554 Polyline 4143499.65 2758207.61 4141746.65 2757429.66 166.09 005 1471 Polyline 4143648.58 2773185.44 4142248.58 2773994.69 17.74 006 1582 Polyline 4143680.35 2772573.57 4142248.58 2773994.69 32.43 007 1420 Polyline 4143931.51 2774613.01 4142457.08 2775366.21 9.30 008 1084 Polyline 4143956.51 2781813.01 4144294.72 2783430.35 15.09 009 1525 Polyline 4144906.51 2773738.01 4142457.08 2775366.21 19.08 010 1132 Polyline 4144977.50 2780405.03 4141767.70 2781554.52 22.86‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍ .... snip ....‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍ At least this will give you an idea of one approach