Finding Intersections

Often, only the general area of a property or region will be known. To search for this location using the cross streets at the nearest intersection, the Query tool can be used. The query will be setup to search for all of the streets containing one of two specific strings of characters using the OR statement / operator.

  1. Open either the Main GIS Map.
  2. Open the Elkhart layer folder and uncheck the cities, civil townships, and county layer checkboxes.
  3. Open the St. Joseph layer folder and uncheck the cities, civil townships, and county layer checkboxes.
  4. Open the folder for the county in which you are trying to locate the intersection and check the Street Centerlines checkbox.
  5. Select the Street Centerlines radio button to make the layer active. This will also refresh the map without having to click the Refresh Map button on the top of the screen.
  6. Click on the Query tool in the toolbox to the left of the map. This will display the Query application in the Query Results Frame below the map.
  7. In the Field dropdown list, select the FENAME field which lists only the name of the street without the street type.
  8. Use the LIKE operator instead of the equals sign to account for additional spaces or some misspelled streets.
  9. Type in the name of the first street to be searched for, within quotes, in the Value box. To improve the number of results returned, use the wildcard character (%) to eliminate any leading or trailing characters that could be in the field (example: "%Main%").
  10. Click on the Add to Query String button below the Operator dropdown list.
  11. Click on the OR button in the top right corner of the Query Results Frame.
  12. Change the street name you typed in the Value box in step nine and click on the Add to Query String again.
  13. Click on the Execute button to run the query.
  14. The first twenty-five results from the query should be listed in the Query Results Frame and if the intersection exists, you should be able to see a yellow cross where the streets intersect.
  15. You can then use the Zoom-in tool to zoom to the intersection and proceed with your project. If you cannot see the intersection however, click on the Zoom to Results button at the bottom of the Query Results Frame. This should correct the problem depending on the location of your results.

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