Skip to main content

Green compass with question mark in the middle Spatial Info Tool

One Tool Example

Spatial Info has a One Tool Example. Go to Sample Workflows to learn how to access this and many other examples directly in Alteryx Designer.

Use Spatial Info to extract tabular information about the spatial object. You can reveal attributes like area, spatial object type, number of parts, number of points, and centroid Latitude /Longitude coordinates.

Configure the Tool

  1. Spatial Object Field: Select the column that contains a spatial object from the dropdown list to append spatial information to.

  2. Items To Output: Select the appropriate checkbox to choose the information to append to the table.

    • Area (Square Kilometers): Append the calculated area in square kilometers of the spatial objects in the table.

    • Area (Square Miles): Append the calculated area in square miles of the spatial objects in the table.

    • Bounding Rectangle as Points: Append the spatial objects (2 points) of the record to its bounding rectangle, based on the geographic extent of the incoming spatial object.

    • Bounding Rectangle as Polygon: Append a spatial object (1 polygon) of the record to its bounding rectangle, based on the geographic extent of the incoming spatial object.

    • Bounding Rectangle as X and Y Fields: Append 4 fields (BR_Left, BR_Top, BR_Right, BR_Bottom), directly related to the bounding rectangle extents' geographic coordinates.

    • Centroid as Spatial Object: Append the spatial object of the record to the centroid.

    • Centroid as X and Y Fields: Append 2 fields (X, Y) depicting the geographic coordinates of the center of its object.

    • End Points as Spatial Object: Append the endpoint (extent or where the object sequence ends) of the records' spatial object.

    • End Points as X and Y Fields: Append 2 fields (X, Y) depicting the geographic coordinates of the endpoint of a record's object.

    • Length (Kilometers): Append the line length, in kilometers, of the record's object. If the object is a line, this field reflects the total line length. If the object is a polygon, this field reflects the perimeter of the polygon object.

    • Length (Miles): Append the line length, in miles, of the record's object. If the object is a line, this field reflects the total line length. If the object is a polygon, this field reflects the perimeter of the polygon object.

    • Number of Parts: Append the number of parts that make up the object (polylines and polygons only).

    • Number of Points: Append the number of points that make up the object (polylines and polygons only).

    • Peano Key: Used to merge the x-coordinate and y-coordinate of a point so the value can be stored in a one-dimensional array. To produce a Peano key the binary bits of the latitude and longitude value for each point are merged by alternating the bits to produce a new binary number.

    • Spatial Object Type: Append the type of spatial object that is associated with the file (Point, Line, Polyline, Polygon). The difference between a polyline and a line is that a polyline contains multiple line segments, whereas a line has one start and one end point, but can have any number of points in between. A polyline can be quite complex as in the case of road systems, or rivers.

  3. Projection for XY Output: (Optional) By default, Designer reports spatial information in WGS 84 projection. You can select a different known projection and return spatial information in that projection. Select "..." to display the Edit Projection window. Go to Projection Support for more information.