If I add a 350 metre buffer around these target locations, it renders like this: Create an Intersects Spatial Join Note, this is dummy data! Target Locations for a New Coffee ShopĪnd below are the six target locations that are available to buy or rent that I’m considering to open a new coffee shop at Existing Competitor Locationsīelow is a map showing all the existing coffee shop locations in London. Join these two files using an intersect join to show the competitors in range of my target locationsīelow, I’ll walk through these steps.Create a buffer around my 6 target locations of 350 metres.Create a file of my 6 target locations (i.e.Create a file of existing competitor locations (inc.For example, lets say I was thinking of opening a coffee shop in London so I wanted to know, for six available target locations, how many competitor coffee shops there were within a 350 metres radius of each of those target locations, this is an approach I could take. The good news is if you don’t have spatial points in your data file, you can create a spatial point using the Makepoint calculation (as long as you have latitude and longitude data in your file) and then nest that within the Buffer calculation, as below: Trade Area Analysisīuffers open up lots of spatial analysis possibilities such as looking at trade areas. A unit of measure for the radius (“miles”|”km”|”m” | “ft”).The buffer function takes three arguments: For example, in the two images below on the left, the circles and buffers appear the same size, however, as I zoom out, the circles resize relative to the map, whereas the buffer remains the same size relative to the map: Calculation Syntax When you resize circle marks in Tableau you are essential giving it an arbitrary size (using the slider bar shown below) and not a specific size defined by a unit of measure:Ī buffer remains a fixed size – the size you give it at creation – and it will scale as you zoom in or out of a map, whereas a circle mark will resize as you zoom.
![geodist map geodist map](https://image1.slideserve.com/1690070/sas-maps-online-downloads-sashelp-zipcode-based-examples-l.jpg)
![geodist map geodist map](https://www.kinetica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/storefront_wms_map.png)
The Buffer calculation returns a spatial object that, when rendered on a map, looks like a circle mark, as shown below: Buffers are not Circle Marks