In this example, a relationship is determined between students and study sectors.  Students being a point layer and study sectors being a polygon layer.  Determining the number of students within each sector is easy to do by simply counting the visible points for each area.  The is not always correct as some points can fall on top of each other.  You can use the select by location tool to find the exact number of student within each sector, but this can become time consuming if you have a lot of areas to cover.  The solution to this problem is the spatial join tool.  This tool determines the spatial relationship between the polygons and points.  A point count for each polygon is created and placed in the attribute table.

Here is a demonstration video:

Note: Videos are broadcast through youtube.com.  Some browsers may block this content.

Download the video to your computer: ArcMap Spatial Join Tool

This is just one example of the efficiency of the Geodatabase.  Geoprocessing is so much quicker.  A savings of time is a savings of money.  Here are a few other things to know about the various types of geodatabases.

Personal Geodatabase

• Single User Editing
• Stored in Access Database File
• 2 GB Max Size

File Geodatabase (ArcGIS 9.2+)

• Single User Editing
• Stored in a Folder
• Efficient Data Structure for Increased Performance
• 1 TB per Table Max Size

SDE Geodatabase

• Multiuser Editing
• Disconnected Editing
• Stored in a RDBMS

Additionally, with the geodatabase you can create:

Topologies
Geometric Networks
Feature Linked Annotation
Relationship Classes
Sub Types and Domains
A Centralized location for all the geographic data

So with these benefits of the geodatabase, try converting some of your data.  Creating a geodatabase does not take long as you can find out in my 90 Second Geodatabase post.  Also, ESRI has a great blog post entitled: Migrating your existing data into the Geodatabase.  It goes into great detail into how to import the following file types into the geodatabase.

• Shapefiles
• Coverages
• CAD
• Tables
• Imagery

Try out the geodatabase today, you will find many benefits.  If it seems a little awkward, give it time as you will get adjusted to the concept.  There is nothing to loose.  If you don’t like it then delete the geodatabase and go back to using your shapefiles.

Good Luck!

Related Website Pages

File Format Support in GeoCommons – Do Geodatabases Make Sense?

Five reasons why you should be using the File Geodatabase

Related Books

Designing Geodatabases: Case Studies in GIS Data Modeling

Modeling Our World: The ESRI Guide to Geodatabase Design