Straight Line Distance function

A straight line distance surface is used to find the shortest distance, a straight line, from each cell to the closest source. Similar to using a ruler to measure the distance between two points on a piece of paper, the Straight Line Distance function measures the distance between cells from the center of each cell in the surface to the center of a source cell.

In this example of a straight line distance surface, there is only one source location. Each cell value indicates the distance to the source. The distance (x) from cell A to the source is measured along a straight line.

A straight line distance surface makes it easy to find the nearest location of something, such as the nearest hospital. While there can be more than one source, each cell value is the straight line distance to only one source, the closest one.

If there is more than one source in a straight line distance surface, cell values indicate the distance to the closest source. In this case, cell A is closest to Source 1, so its value is the distance between them.