How do you select attributes from multiple shapefiles at once

[RichardShelmerdine]

Hi, I was hoping that someone might be able to help me with a problem I'm having.  I'm using ArcGIS10.1 for Desktop with an ArcView license.

I have two point shapefile datasets (I've called them 'long' and 'short') of ship positions for the month.  Each shapefile has the same fields but different amount of data.  The fields are more complete in the long shapefile but this only has positional data for every 15 minutes.  The short shapefile has positional information every 3 minutes but with fewer of the fields complete.  I want to use the short shapefile as there are more points over time but I have found out that there is some missing data points in the short shapefile (database issues which I have no control over!) which are in the long shapefile.  My first thought was merging the data but this also incorporated points occupying the same spatial and temporal area (identical ships).  I also tried selecting by location but this threw up problems with two points occupying the same spatial location on different days (I need to keep this information).

So, my question is; is it possible to select by location and attribute at the same time and for two shapefiles?

I was thinking something along the lines of select when two points are within the same source layer feature and the shipnames are identical and the timstamps are identical.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Kind regards,
Richard

[RichardFairhurst]

Hi, I was hoping that someone might be able to help me with a problem I'm having.  I'm using ArcGIS10.1 for Desktop with an ArcView license.

I have two point shapefile datasets (I've called them 'long' and 'short') of ship positions for the month.  Each shapefile has the same fields but different amount of data.  The fields are more complete in the long shapefile but this only has positional data for every 15 minutes.  The short shapefile has positional information every 3 minutes but with fewer of the fields complete.  I want to use the short shapefile as there are more points over time but I have found out that there is some missing data points in the short shapefile (database issues which I have no control over!) which are in the long shapefile.  My first thought was merging the data but this also incorporated points occupying the same spatial and temporal area (identical ships).  I also tried selecting by location but this threw up problems with two points occupying the same spatial location on different days (I need to keep this information).

So, my question is; is it possible to select by location and attribute at the same time and for two shapefiles?

I was thinking something along the lines of select when two points are within the same source layer feature and the shipnames are identical and the timstamps are identical.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Kind regards,
Richard

Use Spatial Join with an appropriate tolerance and then correct the result by selecting for matching attributes that are joined together.  The more dense point set should be the target and the less dense points set should be the Join.  Use the One to Many option to create all match up points and then filter where the attribute matches make sense.   Now you can do an attribute selection that also takes account of the spatial relationship of the points.

After selecting the matches on attributes, export that set so that you hopefully have a one-to-one match back to the dense point set.  Do a standard join of the original dense point set with this spatial join matched and exported dense point set to transfer attributes picked up from the low density points that have correct attributes using the field calculator and then break the join.  That should be all you need to do.

[Hakan_KOCAMAN]

You can see this url for solution: http://www.hakankocaman.com/multiple-select-by-location-for-feature-count