HOW TO

Find extent min and max values for one or many coverages

Last Published: April 25, 2020

Summary

This document show how to return the extent of an individual coverage, or the common extent among many coverages.

Procedure



  • For an individual coverage use the DESCRIBE command to report the extent to the screen, or the &DESCRIBE directive to populate reserved coverage extent variables:

    %DSC$XMIN%, %DSC$YMIN%, %DSC$XMAX%, %DSC$YMAX%

  • For a group of coverages, the bounding extent can be determined by comparing each coverage's &DESCRIBE variable values to those of the previous coverage. This can be automated in an AML using an &DO &LIST loop on the list of desired coverages.

    /* EXTENTS.AML
    /*
    /* USAGE: &RUN EXTENTS <cover_1,cover_2,...,cover_n>
    /*
    /* PURPOSE: This AML determines the lowest XMIN, the lowest YMIN,
    /* the highest XMAX, and the highest YMAX among a group of
    /* coverages.
    /*
    /* NOTES: The <cover_1,cover_2,...,cover_n> argument has a limit
    /* of 4096 characters.
    /*
    /* This is not an ESRI supported AML. Please use at your own risk.
    /* Also, please make a backup of your data before running this AML
    /* and carefully check the output. This is just a skeleton AML with
    /* no real error checking. It is meant only as a guide to developing an
    /* AML specific to your data inputs and desired outputs.
    /*Capture the comma delimited list of coverages from &RUN command ...
    &args covlist:REST

    /*Check proper usage ...
    &if [null %covlist%] &then
    &call usage
    &else
    &call analyze
    &return
    /**************
    &routine analyze
    /**************

    /*Get extents of first coverage ...
    &sv covlist = [unquote %covlist%]
    &describe [extract 1 %covlist%]
    &sv .xmin = %DSC$XMIN%
    &sv .ymin = %DSC$YMIN%
    &sv .xmax = %DSC$XMAX%
    &sv .ymax = %DSC$YMAX%

    /*Create a list omitting first coverage ...
    &sv covlist2 = [unquote [after [quote %covlist%] [extract 1 %covlist%]]]

    /*Compare each coverage to previous to determine the lowest extent
    /*minimums and highest maximums ...
    &do i &list %covlist2%
    &describe %i%
    &if %.xmin% > %DSC$XMIN% &then &sv .xmin = %DSC$XMIN%
    &if %.ymin% > %DSC$YMIN% &then &sv .ymin = %DSC$YMIN%
    &if %.xmax% < %DSC$XMAX% &then &sv .xmax = %DSC$XMAX%
    &if %.ymax% < %DSC$YMAX% &then &sv .ymax = %DSC$YMAX%
    &end
    &ty The extents for all input datasets are:
    &ty %.xmin% %.ymin% %.xmax% %.ymax%
    &return

    /**************
    &routine usage
    /**************
    &ty No input coverage(s) specified.
    &ty USAGE: &RUN EXTENTS <cover_1,cover_2,...,cover_n>
    &return

Article ID:000002410

Software:
  • Legacy Products
  • ArcMap 8 x

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