GIS Fundamentals Lab 7 Table Operations

Lab 7: Tables Operations in ArcGIS

What You’ll Learn: This Lab provides more practice with tabular data management in
ArcGIS. In this Lab we will view, select, re-order, and update tabular data.

You should read chapter 8 in the GIS Fundamentals textbook before performing this
Lab.

Data: are in the \Lab7 directory, with census data USCounties.shp in a continental
Albers projection, and soils.shp in UTM Zone 17, NAD83 meters coordinates. (note
make sure you have the most current version of USCounties.shp.

What You’ll Produce: Three maps: two of selections based on census data, and one of
a soils data set. You’ll also produce a table of soil properties.

Background: Most spatial data in a GIS consist of at least two types of data: those data
depicting the location and shape of objects, and text or numerical data describing the
objects. These text and numerical data are most often contained in tables, and most
GIS packages have some way of creating and editing these data tables.

ArcGIS - provides a rich set of tools for viewing and displaying attribute data. However,
you don’t have as many options for manipulating and saving table data, as with a full-
featured database manager, so we’ll do some rather simple operations in this lab.

Select by Attribute
Last week we selected rows manually by combinations of clicks and shift clicks on
sorted rows. While sometimes this is the fastest and easiest way to select a set of
features, more often we use a more complex query to select features. We’ll do some
selections using a query builder.

Start ArcGIS, and Add the data layer USCounties.shp to a new, empty project.

Open the Attribute Table and review the table headings.

Most of the headings are somewhat descriptive and describe statistics from the decadal
U.S. Census for a period near the year 2000. These were pulled from various
collaborating federal organizations and include population and crime. These data were
all collected for county areas and referenced with a combined state-county FIPS code,
which is unique for every state/county combination.

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For example, POP2000 is the county population estimate for the year 2000,
Med_Age is the median age of the county population, BURG01 is the number of
reported burglaries for 2001, CropAcres is the number of acres of cultivated cropland in
the county, and Cows is the total number of bovine livestock in the county.

Make a few practice maps that you don’t need to turn in, to get to know the data, e.g.,
Median age by county, from 31.7 (brown) to 54.3 (red):

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Or population per density from low (brown) to high (red):

Let’s take a look at burglary rates. First

create a map that displays burglaries for
each county, in the variable BURG01,
using a Quantile color distribution with 10
classes:

Note a couple of things; the counties with

the highest populations have the highest
number of burglaries, and that there is
probably something amiss on the reporting
for less populous counties in Illinois and
Kentucky.

As with many statistics, the burglaries should be normalized by

total population. As shown previously, we do this by adding a
field via a displayed table, then giving it a name and type in the
Fields table: (remember to Save in the top Fields ribbon menu)

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We can then activate the table display, and right click on

the new column to invoke the Calculate Field tool (right):

We can then build our expression, as shown in last

week’s lab, by selecting the target variable (top arrow at
left), fields and operators (middle two arrows) to form an
assignment equation (bottom arrow).

Clicking on Run should apply the equation to calculate

the burglary rate as a number per 100 persons per year.

Your display should look

something like the image at right
(if you use a quantile class
distribution with 10 classes).

A quick look at the statistics for

burglary rate show a 90th
percentile at 1.037 burglaries per
100 people.

If we wish to select the counties

that have these higher rates, we
could technically do this by
manual selection, but it is a lot of counties to scroll through, so we’ll build a query
instead.

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When you displayed the table a Table View group appeared along
the top ribbon of the main window. Find it, and then click on the
Select by Attributes tool (see figure at right).
We can query the data via the Select by Attributes tool:

This opens a Geoprocessing Pane on the right

side of the main window in which you enter the
target data layer or table, and the type of
selection.

You may create a new selection, meaning start

from scratch with the table with no data currently
selected. You may also choose various other
kinds of selections, for example, those that add
to, subtract from, or do other things with a
currently selected set of records and perhaps
additional records.

Let’s create a query.

Click on the Add Clause button and it should

display a clause builder:

You build the clause by populating each of the windows through a combination of
selections from dropdowns and from manually typing values, as needed.

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If I click on the caret at the right end of the leftmost window – the one that contains FID
in the figure above – a
dropdown displays the table
variables:

I can scroll down the list and

click on the variable I wish
to enter into the clause, in
this case, BurgRate.

In the same way, if I click on the caret at

the right end of the next window, I can
select an operator.

In this case we want our first clause to

select high burglary rates, so I’ll choose
the is Greater Than comparison:

You then type the threshold for selection directly in the rightmost window (below arrow):

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Add it to the query list by

clicking on ‘Add’ on the query
bar (see above), and then Run
near the bottom right of the
Geoprocessing Pane displaying
the query tool.

This should display a set of

selected counties as on the
right:

Note if you open the table, some of

the selected polygons will show with
the rows in the selection color, while
unselected will not (see at right):

You can toggle between showing all

records in the table and showing
only selected records in the table by
clicking on the two icons displayed
near the lower left corner of the
table:

Display only
selected
Display
records
All

Again, data are collected by state agencies for most states, so variation in methods and
definitions between states can lead to odd differences at state boundaries. The simplest
comparisons are within state, although cross state differences can be conducted with
proper adjustments.

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Let’s do a compound selection, with more than one clause.

Suppose we’re interested in how easy it is to rent a house, and so you want to map
counties by vacancy rates. If we look at the variables in the table we note that although
there are total number of housing units, and a number of vacant units, vacancy rates
are missing. We must calculate it.

Here, we’ll define it as the total number of housing units vacant, divided by the total
number of housing units, multiplied by 100. We need to create this normalized column,
as before.

Create a new variable called VacRate using the above (pg.3) and last week’s exercise
for guidance (use Float for type), and calculate an appropriate value into VacRate (like on
pg.4). Your formula should look something like:

Verify you did this correctly by checking that your statistics show a minimum vacancy
rate of about 1.53% and maximum of 77%. Your map of vacancy rates should look
something like that below when displayed with a quantile symbology and 10 classes.
The lowest rates should be on the coasts, the Upper Midwest, and in counties
containing large cities:

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I want to set an upper threshold of

70% vacancy. I build the clause, as
above, selecting the target variable
(VacRate), the relationship (Is
Greater Than), and the threshold
(70.0), and then click the ADD button
on the right side of the Clause bar.
This builds the first clause:

I also want to find low vacancy rate

counties, so I can Add a Clause
by clicking on the button below
the current clause:

This opens another clause builder window, into which I enter the following:

Here we use the ‘Or’ operator, because we want to

identify vacancy rates that are at the extremes, either
high or low.

After I enter the desired parameters and click

Add, both clauses show up in the Selection Pane:

Clicking on Run applies both of these to the table,

selecting records that meet both criteria.

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Hitting Run should select 6 of

3069 counties, shown in the
figure below, and re-colored
from previous figures so the
selected counties will stand
out on the map:

We often want to export

results of a query. We’ve
already shown you how to
export a data layer, both the
polygons and table (recall to
right click on the layer in the
TOC, then Data - Export
Features).

You may also export just the

table through two avenues.

First, click on the Menu button

in the upper right corner of a
displayed table, then select the
Export option:

The second (not shown), is

similar to exporting a layer,
right click on the layer in the
TOC, then Data – Export Table.

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GIS Fundamentals Lab 7 Table Operations

Assignment 1: Counties with Many Oldsters

Your task is to identify counties with a large number of older aged people relative to
younger aged people, based on the data in the USCounties.shp data layer we’ve been
using. (Remember to Clear any selected fields before continuing)

Create and index variables in the table that is the ratio (People over 65) / (people 21
and under) * 100

Select counties that have a value for this ratio that is over 85, and a total population that
is over 150,000.

This selected set should contain 13 counties; 11 total in Florida, one in Arizona, and 1 in
Massachusetts.

Save the selected counties to a new data layer. (consider saving as a shapefile; such as
oldcounties.shp; remember SHAPEFILES cannot be saved in a Geodatabase, choose a folder for output like \Lab7).
Use both oldcounties.shp and USCounties.shp and create a layout that is similar to that
below.

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Make sure to
symbolize the 13
identified counties
in a contrasting
color so that they
stand out. Your
Age Index
categories don’t
have to exactly
match those
shown but should
be close.

Create a PDF of a
Layout and turn it
in on the class
Canvas website.

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Joining Two Existing Tables (practice exercise)

We often manage tables separately and join them as needed on common fields for
combined analysis. We’ll cover how to join tables in ArcGIS Pro.

Create a new project, add a Map, and Add the layer (which is also called a “theme”)
demographics.shp from the Lab 7 folder. Also add the data table name more_data.dbf

Right click on more_data.dbf in the TOC, and left click on Open

Notice that both tables have an item named Blkgrp. This item can serve as a key for the
join. As described in the book, the join will match rows by these key variables, to
display a combined table.

Use the scroll bars at the bottom of each table to look at all the variables (columns) in
each table.

Are the variables ordinal, nominal, or interval/ratio? Which other variables are found in
both tables? Which variables might serve as keys for the table, and which would be
inappropriate as keys? See Chapter 8 in the textbook, if you’re unsure on these
concepts.

Each record (row) in each table corresponds to each polygon in this US Census Bureau
demographic data, displayed in demographics. These files were produced from U.S.
Census data, which uses a variable named Blkgrp as unique identifiers. The codes
correspond to groups of city blocks, and identify polygons used to summarize census
data. Each record in our tables corresponds to a block group.

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The file more_data.dbf includes populations at

various dates for each block group polygon,
e.g., Hh80 = population in 1980, Hh90 =
population in 1990, etc.

Right click on the demographics layer in the

TOC

select Joins and Relates

and then Add Join

(Video: Join Tables)

This opens a Geoprocessing Pane on the far

right in which you identify:

-the main table, to be joined to,

-the field in the main table used to match

records (rows)

-the (join) table you wish to join to the main

table

-the field in the join table that you will use to

match records. This field is almost always a
key

In our example the join fields have the same

name, but this isn’t required. They do have
to be the same type and hold compatible
data, but they can have distinct names.

Also note that the like-named variables in this instance should be avoided, because
they’re not the same type and/or don’t hold compatible data. Examine the various items
that start with BLKGRP, but make sure you are joining demographics to the more_data
file and using the field Blkgrp, not a field called Blkgrp_.

Left click on OK to join the tables.

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You may get a warning asking if you wish to create an index, accept the
recommendation. (Note: if you map disappears, select Symbology, and under Primary Symbology, choose
“Unique Values” and then switch back to “Single Symbol” and you map will reappear: This is a bug)

Now reexamine the demographics attribute table.

Notice the demographics table has the more_data fields append to the end of each
record.

You’ve just connected the two tables, matching the records in one table to the records
in another table that have the same value for BLKGRP.

This is a temporary join, the original files/data have not been modified. ArcGIS keeps
track of joins within a project, and how to display the various joined files. If you were to
display these data sets in another project, they would not appear joined. The data are
not copied to a new, combined, file. Rather, this join tells ArcGIS to display these two
data sets within this particular view, matching each row by the join variable.

Selecting on a Joined Table

Now, let’s select items based on the joined tables.
• Open the Attributes Table of demographics. It should display both the original data
plus the data from more_data.dbf.

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• Activate the Select by Attributes described in the previous section of this lab

• Specify a selection clause

Hhpctgrowt is Greater Than 0 (see right)

• Examine your selected block groups on the

map, and notice it selects most of them

• Clear your selection (from the Main ArcGIS

menu, Selection→Clear Selected
Features), or use the toolbar icon

• Use the Select by Attributes tool again on

this same table and select blocks that have
both population growth greater than 0 and
income less than $30,000. As in the
previous section, you need to add two clauses:

- Hhpctgrowt is Greater than 0

- AND Hhincavg is Less than 30000

• Add both clauses, Run the query, and examine the

resulting selection. Were 17 of 167 records selected?
Are the same polygons selected as shown on the right?

If not re-check your clauses and parameters, then re-apply.

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Assignment 2: County Cow Density (to be turned in)

We’re interested in the number of cows per square mile in each of the U.S. counties.
(remember Start a NEW Project)

There are two files in the Lab 7 folder that will allow us to calculate and display this. The
first is the USCounties shapefile data layer we worked with in the first section of this lab.

The second is the USAgdat.dbf table that contains summary data for each U.S. county,
with the number of cows for each county stored in the item named Cows.

The item CountyAcre in USAgdat.dbf stores the number of acres in each county.

You need to perform a combination of operations to create a map that looks something
like that below; showing the number of cows per square mile (CPSM). It shows a
quantile symbology with 10 classes.

The combined FIPS code in each table may serve as a key to join them. It
concatenates the state and county FIPS codes as to uniquely identify each county.
(Note: if your map goes blank after the join, use symbology to display unique values; the primary single symbol
default display is cleared with the join)

There are 640 acres in a square mile, so you may wish to calculate a variable that holds
the number of square miles in each county, and then create another variable into which
you calculate the number of cows divided by the number of square miles. Alternately,
you can do a combined calculation into a single variable.

Create a layout, add a title, legend, your name, scale bar, and North arrow, export a
PDF, and turn it in on the course Canvas site.

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Creating New Tables

Creating a table and joining it to existing tables is a common operation. Often, this join
involves a one-to-many relationship between tables. Each record in one table matches
many records in the second table. For example, a typical county may have
approximately 80 different soil types, but over 100,000 different soil polygons of these
types. Therefore, we may have properties for each of the 80 different types, e.g., crop
productivity, engineering properties, moisture characteristics. We may format these in a
table and join this table to our existing county data layer. The repeated properties aren’t
copied, just displayed for the appropriate polygon. This saves space, because we don’t
have redundant copies of the soil properties information saved for each instance of a
soil polygon in our data layer.

This exercise will give you practice in creating and joining tables, and practice in the
other techniques you learned in the first section of this lab (Video: Create Tables).

Create a new Map with a Blank Document.

1. Add the soils.shp data layer, set the Symbology to Unique Values based on the item
Soil_Type.

2. Uncheck the “Show all other values”, so this won’t appear in the legend.

3. Select a Color Ramp.

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GIS Fundamentals Lab 7 Table Operations

Open the soils attribute table.

You should have a view similar to the figure below. Review the layer attributes, and in
particular notice the soil_type attribute.

The soil_type
attribute
contains a
code
corresponding
to the soil type
of each
individual
polygon.
Notice there are 15 different soil types designated by numbers between 18 and 69.
There are 122 different soil polygons.

Our job is to create a new table, enter important information for each of the 15 different
soil types, and join this data with the soils data layer.

In this exercise you will use the “soil_type” variable in the soils data layer as the join
item or join column. This is the “key” variable that will be used to match the rows from
the new soil properties table you will create to the soil polygon data in soils. The join
item must be defined the same way in both tables, with the same type (long or short
integer, text, etc.)

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Let’s examine the “key” or join column in the target table. Do this by a right click on soils
file in the Table of Contents window, then Select Data in the top ribbon menu and then
select Fields.

This should display the window below. Left click on the soil_type item and note the type
and other properties of the soil_type item.

Now we need to create the new data table we’ll be joining to soils.

Left click on the Catalog Pane in the

set of panes on the right, or via the
View tab along the top ribbon bar, to
display the list of active databases
(see right).

Right click on the database you’re

working in (here, Lab7prj1),

Left click ‘New’ from the dropdown

menu.

Left click ‘Table’ on the next

dropdown menu…

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and complete the form in the Geoprocessing Pane, then hit

‘Run’ to create a new table named soilprops.

Open the soilprops table (right click in the TOC, then Open).

Add the following fields (remember via the table tools icon,
Add Field):

 soil_type, long
 name, text, length of 20
 fert_class, double
 drain_clas, double.

Do not delete or alter the OID field. If you make a mistake on

a field name or type, correct it before you create the next
field. After a field is created you cannot edit the field name,
instead you’ have to delete the field and try again.

Remember to Save your Fields (at the top ribbon menu) when you are done entering
them.

Add the soilprops table to your Map if it isn’t already in your TOC, then Open the table.

You should see the column headings and a blank row.

Left click on the table to activate it, then on the soil_type cell for the first row. This
should put the cell in edit mode,
with a green background for the
column and darkened border
around the cell like ->

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GIS Fundamentals Lab 7 Table Operations

Type the values for the first row from the table shown in below-right figure Click
successively down the row to add the values in the appropriate locations, e.g.,
Soil_Type: 18, Name: Eve, etc.

When you enter the value for the last column in a row hit return,
or click on the OID column label, then in the patch to the left of
the “Click to add new row” message.

Enter all data shown in the table at right.

When you are finished entering data, select the Edit ribbon menu
and Save

Join the soils layer and the soilprops table you just created.
Remember to use the common field soil_type, to join the files,
and refer to the instructions earlier in this lab if need be (pg.
12/13).

After you’ve completed the join, create a layout using the new
soils table. Display soils by fertility class in the top half of a portrait layout.

Recolor the soils data with different colors for each of the five fertility classes,
approximately as the example map on the next page. Set the fertility classes with a
Quantile Method for 5 soil fertility classes.

We’d like to add the table you entered onto the Layout. Switch to the layout view, as
shown on the next page.

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On your layout view

make sure the ‘Insert’
tab is activated
and expand the
‘Map Frame’ and
elements listed in the
Contents Pane (do this
by clicking on carets on
the left so they point
downwards as in the
image at right):

Click on the soilprops

table in the Contents
window, then on the
‘Table Frame’ tool found
in the ‘Map Surrounds’
group, shown near the
top center (thick arrow,
in figure at right).

This will activate a cross-hair cursor, indicating you should draw a Table Frame. Now
click-hold and drag to put one in the lower part of the layout.

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TURN IN the following as .pdf:

• Map1: Oldster Counties
• Map2: Cow Density
• Map3: Macon County, NC Soil Fertility

We must stress the utility of what you’ve just done. Managers and scientists often
want information grouped and displayed in different ways. Joins are then used to add
information to and produce maps upon which decisions are based. Geographic data
may be joined to many different sets of tabular data. These joined sets may be selected
based on many combinations of attributes, greatly increasing the flexibility and utility of
data in a GIS.

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