Assign by Closest Stores Location (Business Analyst)

Summary

Assigns customers to stores by closest location using a straight-line distance method.

Learn more about how Assign by Closest Location works

Usage

• You cannot undo the assignment of customers to stores in an existing field.

• Customers are assigned to the closest store location.

• Assignments are based on a straight-line Euclidean distance calculation.

• Use the Assign By Trade Area tool if you do not want to assign customers using a straight-line distance. The Assign By Trade Area tool can be used with drive-time polygons.

• If a customer is at an equal distance from two or more stores, the customer will be assigned to the first store in the attribute table.

Syntax

AssignCustomersByLocation_ba (InputFeatureLayer, IdField, CustomerLayer, LinkField, {UseSelectedFeatures}, {WayToDefineLinkField}, {CreateNewFeatureClass}, {OutputFeatureClass})

Parameter	Explanation	Data Type
InputFeatureLayer	The store layer to which to assign customers.	Feature Layer
IdField	The unique identifier of each store.	Field
CustomerLayer	The customer layer used to make the customer assignments to each store.	Feature Layer
LinkField	The field that will be populated with the associated store ID.	Field
UseSelectedFeatures (Optional)	Customers are assigned by selected features of the customer layer. True —Assigns selected customers to stores. False —Assigns all customers to stores.	Boolean
WayToDefineLinkField (Optional)	Selects an existing store ID field or creates a new field. USE_EXISTING —Uses an existing store ID field. CREATE_NEW —Creates a new store ID field.	Boolean
CreateNewFeatureClass (Optional)	Generates a new feature class based on the existing layer or uses the existing layer. True —Creates a new feature class. False —Does not create a new feature class. The original layer will be used.	Boolean
OutputFeatureClass (Optional)	The feature class that will contain the assigned features.	Feature Class

Code Sample

AssignCustomersByLocation Example (Stand-alone Script)

# Name: AssignCustomersByLocation.py
# Description: Assigns customers in the San Francisco area to their designated stores by closest location using a straight-line distance metho
# Author: ESRI

# Import system modules

import arview
import arcpy

arcpy.ImportToolbox("C:\Program Files\ArcGIS\Desktop10.0\ArcToolbox\Toolboxes\Business Analyst Tools.tbx")
 
try:
  # Acquire extension license 
  arcpy.CheckOutExtension("Business") 
 
  # Defines the parameters for the Assign by Closest Stores Location tool
  StorePath = "C:/temp/sf_stores.shp"
  CustPath = "C:/temp/sf_cust.shp"
  StoreId = "STORE_ID"
  StoreLink = "STORE_ID"
 
  # Assigns by Closest Stores Location
  arcpy.AssignCustomersByLocation_ba(StorePath, StoreId, CustPath, StoreLink, "false")
 
  # Release extension license 
  arcpy.CheckInExtension("Business") 
 
except:
  print arcpy.GetMessages(2)

Environments

This tool does not use any geoprocessing environments

Licensing Information

ArcView: Requires Business Analyst

ArcEditor: Requires Business Analyst

ArcInfo: Requires Business Analyst