Creating Study Area Features

Question

Hi! I'm really confused on what these questions are asking! I think I'm supposed to combine the 10 data from the US Census and make them into new study areas? I'm not sure if I need to use Select By Location, Append, Merge, or Clip for certain items. Any help is appreciated! I asking my coworkers too, but no one has a clue yet!

Like for to create AustinMetroCounties, would I need to take out all the counties in TexasCounties and leave ONLY Hays, Travis, and Williamson? If so, how would I do that?

counties.jpg

newcounties.jpg

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SarahModlin · Answer

Thanks! But I'm still so confused about how exactly do I only focus on the three counties listed? The field they are in is under "Name" and it features every county in Texas. I'm not sure how to only pick out the 3 I need. I tried subselect and nothing happened.

KimberlyGarbade · Answer

In most cases the questions give you keywords describing the analysis tools to use.  Look for words that describe actions and search the ArcGIS Pro help or Google using those (add "Esri" or "ArcGIS" to your search or you'll just get a definition for the word "label").

The instruction to remove original and interim files refers to the fact that when you are using geoprocessing tools they use inputs files (feature classes, shapefiles, csv, whatever the tool takes) and they either create new output files, or alter the original file.  I think what the questioner is asking is that you only leave the asked for files (the files that are the answers to the questions) in the final file geodatabase.

Another hint is that its more common to select a subset from a set to create a new set than it is to select existing features and deleted them.  Deleting has its place for sure, but think about the effect of deleting counties from the Counties feature class if you weren't doing it to a copy of the original data.