What comes to mind when one thinks of spatial data? Maps? Topography? Coordinates?
To truly understand spatial data one must understand what the building blocks of spatial data are; what they represent and what they are used for. These 3 building blocks form the core for any type of spatial data and analysis and are the Point, the Line and the Polygon.
Points are the most basic form of spatial data and are typically what we refer to when we talk about coordinates and the specific location of things.
Lines are made up of points and represent the relationship between certain coordinates, things such as distance or the route of things.
Polygons in turn are made up of lines and represent the physical shape of geographic areas through.
These 3 building blocks allow for all sorts of different types of spatial analysis from identifying the exact location of things to seeing how close they are and what area they encompass.
But what if we are given data structured only in one of these formats but want to convert it to a different form so that we can conduct a different analysis on them? (ie. map out the area inside a variety of points?
This is where the Poly-Build and Poly-Split tools in Alteryx’s spatial tool set can help us to restructure spatial data into different forms.
As their names suggest, Poly-Build is a tool that allows us to build points into lines or polygons whilst Poly-Split allows us to split a polygon into points or smaller polygons named ‘regions’.
Let’s take a look at some examples of the tools from Alteryx Challenges 27 (Poly-Split) and 6 (Poly-Build)
In Challenge 27 our goal is to smoothen a geographic area into a solid polygon, removing holes and ‘splatter’ from the initial area.
Using the Poly-Split tool and configuring it to split to detailed regions, we can fill in all the holes and fragment the ‘splatter’ into regional polygons. This then creates a smoother area that allows us to more easily see the area covered.
Now let’s take a look at Alteryx Challenge 6. In this challenge we are given multiple points on a map of the United States that represent different airports. Using these points we want to be able to draw lines that represent the routes of sales representatives across the country.
Using the Poly-Build tool, we can sequence lines between the points based on the travel data we have in the configuration pane.
This now allows us to draw visual lines between points, giving us ways to measure the distance sales reps traveled for each trip.
Voila!
In summary, Poly-Build and Poly-Split are two powerful tools in Alteryx for manipulating spatial data. While Poly-Build allows you to create new polygons or lines from smaller units, Poly-Split lets you break down larger building blocks into smaller ones. By using Poly-Build and Poly-Split, you can achieve efficient data analysis and obtain better insights from spatial data that might not normally be possible in their original form.