How can I find the demographics for a group of ZIP Codes or other areas?

Often in Maptitude, you will want demographic information for particular groups of States, Postal Codes, or other areas. This article will show some different types of selections you can make, how you can display these selections, as well as how to export them and their demographic information.

Step 1: Using selection sets to get only the records you want

You can manage most selections using the Selection Toolbar, which can be toggled on/off by choosing Selection>Toolbar or clicking  in the standard toolbar.

1. Make the layer for which you would like to generate a report (e.g. 5 Digit ZIP Code) the Working Layer.
2. Make a new selection group by clicking in the selection toolbar. Choose an appropriate name.

Here are some ways in which you might want to make selections:

By clicking in the map	Click in the selection toolbar and click on the features you want to be included.
By clicking in a table	Right-click the layer you want to select from and choose New Dataview. You can add/remove elements from your selection set by clicking in the selection column, which is located in the far left of the dataview.
By drawing a shape in the map	Click in the selection toolbar and click and drag on your map to select every area within the drawn circle. This works similarly for the other shapes: ,
By filtering based on the data	Click and enter a condition (e.g. Population > 10000). Only the areas that satisfy the condition will be included

Selection sets are covered in more detail in this tutorial video

Step 2: Using Show/Hide fields to get only the fields you want

We have now filtered down the layer to just the areas we would like to export, but for a lot of the layers, there are hundreds of demographic fields included. You may not want all the fields associated with your data in your export, so here is how you can choose which ones you want to be included/excluded:

1. In the Display Manager, right-click on the layer you selected from in Step 1 and choose New Dataview
2. In the main toolbar click on the Dropdown menu that says All Records. Change it to the set created in Step 1.
3. Click or choose Dataview>Fields>Show/Hide to open the Show/Hide fields dialog box.
4. Here you can add and remove fields from your dataview by using the Add and Drop buttons and reorder them using the Move Up and Move Down buttons.
5. You may want to start by clicking Clear and then only adding the fields you want
6. Once you have chosen the desired fields, click OK

You should now have a dataview showing only the records you want (i.e. the ones included in your selection) and only the fields you want (i.e. the ones you chose using Show/Hide)

Step 3: Exporting to Excel

Once you have all the selections and fields you wish to be shown in your dataview, you can export all of this information to Excel:

1. Make sure your dataview is your active window, and choose File>Export>Table
2. Give your table a name, choose a destination, and click “Save”. You now have an excel file with all your selected locations and their relevant fields.