Spatial relationships

Spatial relationships are used by Join Features when creating a spatial join between two layers.

Intersects

The features in the target layer will be matched if they intersect features in the join layer. All feature types are supported for both the target layer and the join layer.

The first image shows the target layer (yellow) and join layer (purple). The second image shows the output layer (blue) following a join with the spatial relationship set to Intersects.

• —Target layer
• —Join layer
• —Output layer

Within a distance

The features in the join layer will be matched if they are within a specified distance of features in the target layer. All feature types are supported for both the target layer and the join layer.

The first image shows the target layer (yellow circles) and join layer (purple triangle) with a black circle indicating the search distance. The second image shows the output layer (blue circles) following a join with the spatial relationship set to Within a distance.

• —Target layer
• —Join layer
• —Output layer

Within

The features in the target layer will be matched if they are within or contained by features in the join layer. The target layer supports point and multipoint features and the join layer supports multipoint features.

The first image shows the target layer (yellow circles) of point features and join layer (purple triangles) of multipoint features. The second image shows the output layer (blue circles) following a join with the spatial relationship set to Within.

• —Target layer (points)
• —Join layer (multipoint)
• —Output layer (points)

Identical to

The features in the target layer will be matched if they are identical to features in the join layer. The following combinations of features are supported:

• Point target layer with point or multipoint join layer
• Line target layer and join layer
• Polygon target layer and join layer

The first image shows the target layer (yellow circles) and join layer (purple triangles). The second image shows the output layer (blue circles) following a join with the spatial relationship set to Identical to.

• —Target layer
• —Join layer
• —Output layer

Contains

The features in the target layer will be matched if they contain features in the join layer. The target layer supports multipoint features and the join layer supports point and multipoint features.

The first image shows the target layer (yellow and orange circles) and join layer (purple triangles). The second image shows the output layer (blue circles) following a join with the spatial relationship set to Contains.

• and —Target layer (multipoint)
• —Join layer (point)
• —Output layer (multipoint)

Completely contains

The features will be matched if the features in the target layer completely contain features in the join layer. The following combinations of features are supported:

• Line target layer with point, line, or multipoint join layer
• Polygon target layer with point, line, polygon, or multipoint join layer

The first image shows the target layer (yellow polygons) and join layer (purple lines). The second image shows the output layer (blue polygons) following a join with the spatial relationship set to Completely contains.

• —Target layer
• —Join layer
• —Output layer

Completely within

The features will be matched if the features in the target layer are completely within features of the join layer. The following combinations of features are supported:

• Point, line, or multipoint target layer with line or polygon join layer
• Polygon target layer with polygon join layer

The first image shows the target layer (yellow polygons) and join layer (purple polygons). The second image shows the output layer (blue polygons) following a join with the spatial relationship set to Completely within.

• —Target layer
• —Join layer
• —Output layer