CALCULATING DISTANCE

[EMMANUELJOLAIYA]

Hi guyz,I have a task at hand which is to calculate the distance between local governments in a state and the state capital.

Thanks

[RachelSears · Accepted solution]

Hi Emmanuel,

Without knowing which client (ArcMap, ArcGIS Pro, etc) or version you are using, it is harder to know how to help you. The two easiest ways to perform your workflow are:

1. Use the Measure tool to individually measure distance between points, or:

2. Create a point layer with the state capital as the only point, and another point layer with the local governments as points, and use the Point Distance tool to generate a table with the distances.

Point Distance

Measure Tool

Hope this helps!

- Rachel

[EMMANUELJOLAIYA]

Thank you very much Rachel!

I forgot to mention that I have tried the above method--PointDistance ,but the values in the distance field in the attribute table seems fluffy.

What do you think the problem is?

[RachelSears]

Hi Emmanuel,

The output values in the distance field will always be in the same units as the coordinate system of the input feature. So, if you are using a coordinate system with decimal degrees, the Point Distance tool will generate an output of distances in decimal degrees, which might be why the values look odd to you. You may want to try projecting your data using a local projected coordinate system that is measured in linear units such as feet or meters, like NAD 1983 State Plane (if you are looking at U.S. data).

- Rachel

[EMMANUELJOLAIYA]

Thank you,

I will do just that.