Pitney Bowes MapInfo Professional - Manual (Page 224)

Selecting Your Data in MapInfo Professional
While MapInfo Professional allows you to attach data to objects on a map, its true analytical power is its
ability to group and organize data. Once your data is broken down into logical groups, you can analyze
it based on one or more variables.
For example, you have a basket of fruit. You want to organize the fruit into different categories, based
on one or more variables:
• Put all the apples into one group
• Put all the citrus fruit into one group (oranges, lemons, grapefruit)
• Put all the fruit that begins with a vowel into one group (oranges, apples, apricots)
There are many different ways that you could group the fruit. Some fruit would fall into more than one
category (oranges are citrus fruit and also begin with a vowel). You could also use more than one variable
to group your fruit - put all the citrus fruit that begins with a vowel into one group.
MapInfo Professional can retrieve information or even individual records from within your data. We refer
to the record or records that are retrieved this way as selections. A selection is a subset of data that has
been collected based on one or more variables.
For example, you have a table of customer records. You could create a subset of all customers who live
within a 50 mile radius of Prague. Or, you could create a subset of all customers who purchased over
$1000 of merchandise. Or, you could create a subset of all customers whose last name begins with the
letter "B".
The statements above used to create these subsets are known as queries. A query is just another word
for a question - which of my customers spent more than $1,000? Which of my customers lives within 50
miles of Prague?
As with the fruit example, there are many different ways to group your data. Some data records will
obviously fall into more than one category. You could also use more than one variable to group your
data. Which of my customers lives within 50 miles of Prague and purchased over $1000 of merchandise?
This section gives you some examples and some practical applications of "selecting" in MapInfo
Professional.
MapInfo Professional 12.5 224
Selecting Your Data in MapInfo Professional