Hello all. I am new to GIS...

[CaroleWacta]

I am working on a file that has more data than I need.

It is a Parcel Data but I would like to extract Only the VACANT parcels and it seem to be the ones with a PO BOX under ADDRESS 3 column(just my assumption, correct me if I am wrong)... So my issue now is that I do not know how to Querry ONLY the parcels that have a POBOX because the POBOX have different numbers after BOX....

Do I do a field calculator and query

=

ADDRESS_3 = ' P O BOX *'

My question is, how do I get all PO BOX without having to put all numbers?

The data is attached.

Tks a lot

[WesMiller]

Use the like operator, I would strongly scrutinize the data.

ADDRESS_3 LIKE ' P O BOX %'

You may also want to move to New to GIS​ or GIS​

[DarrenWiens2 · Accepted solution]

As Wes says, use LIKE. However, the query is as specific as you make it. For example, Wes' example will only return records that follow the pattern [space]P[space]O[space]Box[anything or nothing]. If you can get away with it, I would make it more general, for example:

ADDRESS_3 LIKE '%BOX %'

^ this would return anything containing the word BOX followed by a space.

[CaroleWacta]

This works perfectly...

Thank you a tonn

[CaroleWacta]

hank you very much

[ChrisSmith7]

Carole,

I would be careful assuming you can identify vacant parcels by looking for a PO Box in address3 - this may simply indicate the parcel owner receives mail at a PO Box, or maybe it's a tertiary address to address1/address2. It could also indicate additional components of the same address, e.g.:

address1: 123 Main St

address2: Suite 101

address3: Next to Wal-Mart

You should consult the metadata in ArcCatalog to see if there is any information - How to: View and Edit Metadata in ArcGIS 10 | Introduction to GIS

Perhaps there is another column you can reference for a vacancy status. If you go back to property appraisers site, maybe they publish look-up tables or relationship tables you can join to get this information. Bottom line - just be careful in making data assumptions!

[ChrisSmith7]

You might have better luck looking at [BUILDING_V] - this seems to indicate building value. Those with a building value of zero might be vacant. I say might because it may have a building, but it's assessed at no value. Additionally, it may be a parking lot, or something else - I'm not sure this would qualify as vacant land...

There don't appear to be any useful metadata, and the property appraiser's site doesn't seem to give information to help. You could call them, or send an e-mail and ask, but I didn't see anything that jumped at me that would allow you to easily identify vacant parcels.

[CaroleWacta]

Chris,

You are so right. I contacted the City and they told me to do a query with Building Value and Land Value < 500...

That is what I did and it worked...

Tks a lot...

I still learned to use the LIKE trough posting this...

Thank you again