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.