...and this week, I got stuck.
Our assignment this week focused on Excel and Geocoding. We made a map with public data, showing where all the schools in Brevard County, Florida are located. GIS is often notorious for delivering significant moments of frustration for students and analysts, especially when attempting to try something new or experiencing a "bug" in the software. This week, I faced both.
Early on, I finished the first half of the assignment smoothly - and bragged to my husband and colleagues that I had gotten started early on my homework. With half a dozen days to complete the Geocoding half, I thought I was good to go. I was not correct. I became stuck almost right away, when I attempted the Excel formulas and ended up with the same information twice. Factoring in my comfort with Excel, I became frustrated quickly. Time just kept going by. After two days of being stuck, I finally took a break. A fresh look helped me notice that I was missing two of the commas in the formulas, and this was giving me the wrong results.
Moving on from that, things went smooth for awhile. I downloaded and projected data, imported my table, and started the Geocoding. At the rematch, I was delighted to see that my results were matching up. And then...
Early on, I finished the first half of the assignment smoothly - and bragged to my husband and colleagues that I had gotten started early on my homework. With half a dozen days to complete the Geocoding half, I thought I was good to go. I was not correct. I became stuck almost right away, when I attempted the Excel formulas and ended up with the same information twice. Factoring in my comfort with Excel, I became frustrated quickly. Time just kept going by. After two days of being stuck, I finally took a break. A fresh look helped me notice that I was missing two of the commas in the formulas, and this was giving me the wrong results.
Moving on from that, things went smooth for awhile. I downloaded and projected data, imported my table, and started the Geocoding. At the rematch, I was delighted to see that my results were matching up. And then...
Chaos. Frustration. Computing flying out the window (or so I imagined).
After looking up the unmatched addresses and finding where I wanted to put the point using the ArcGIS Pro locator, I realized that nothing was happening when I attempted to Pick from Map. It would act as if something was going to happen, and then zap out and do nothing. Twice, it crashed my software (save early, save often!). I restarted the software. Then, I tried restarting the computer. After five tries and no solutions, I took ANOTHER break...
...when I came back, I ran the Geocoding tool and began the rematch again with the addresses I had written down from previous searches. It worked the first time, and I was able to finish my map (seen above). When I do these write-ups, it is common for me to think that each lesson is memorable (most of them are). This one is memorable in a whole different way. A true challenge that tested my patience and skills - the Geocoding lesson is one I will truly never forget.
Visit my map online at http://arcg.is/1ju0L50!
Working best as an interactive map, this week's assignment used public data to create a table in Excel. The data contains the Name, Address, City, Zip, Phone number, and Type of each school in Brevard County, Florida. The locations of these Universities, High Schools, Middle schools, etc. are Geocoded and matched by address on the map. Then, I uploaded the layer and shared it with everyone online. The points in the map above, as seen in the Legend, are each school near the closest roadway/intersection.
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