ArcMap

Lowest Position

Available with Spatial Analyst license.

Summary

Determines on a cell-by-cell basis the position of the raster with the minimum value in a set of rasters.

Illustration

Lowest Position illustration
OutRas = LowestPosition([InRas1, InRas2, InRas3])

Usage

  • An arbitrary number of rasters can be specified in the input rasters list.

  • The order of the input rasters is relevant for this tool.

  • When a multiband raster is specified as one of the Input rasters or constant values (in_rasters_or_constants in Python), all the bands will be used.

    To process a selection of bands from a multiband raster, you can first create a new raster dataset composed of those particular bands with the Composite Bands tool, and use the result in the list of the Input rasters or constant values (in_rasters_or_constants in Python).

  • If a cell location contains NoData on any of the input rasters, that location will be assigned NoData on the output.

  • The output raster is always of integer type.

  • If two or more input rasters contain the minimum value for a particular cell location, the position of the first one encountered is returned on the output raster.

  • See Analysis environments and Spatial Analyst for additional details on the geoprocessing environments that apply to this tool.

Syntax

LowestPosition (in_rasters_or_constants)
ParameterExplanationData Type
in_rasters_or_constants
[in_raster_or_constant,...]

The list of input rasters for which the position of the input with the lowest value will be determined.

A number can be used as an input; however, the cell size and extent must first be set in the environment.

Raster Layer; Constant

Return Value

NameExplanationData Type
out_raster

The output raster.

For each cell in the output raster, the value represents the position of the raster with the lowest value.

Raster

Code sample

LowestPosition example 1 (Python window)

This example evaluates several input rasters and returns as an output value the position in the list of the raster with the minimum value.

import arcpy
from arcpy import env
from arcpy.sa import *
env.workspace = "C:/sapyexamples/data"
outLowestPosition = LowestPosition(["degs", "negs", "fourgrd"])
outLowestPosition.save("C:/sapyexamples/output/outlp.tif")
LowestPosition example 2 (stand-alone script)

This example evaluates several input rasters and returns as an output value the position in the list of the raster with the minimum value.

# Name: LowestPosition_Ex_02.py
# Description: Determines the position of a raster with the minimum
#              value in a set of rasters
# Requirements: Spatial Analyst Extension

# Import system modules
import arcpy
from arcpy import env
from arcpy.sa import *

# Set environment settings
env.workspace = "C:/sapyexamples/data"

# Set local variables
inRaster01 = "degs"
inRaster02 = "negs"
inRaster03 = "fourgrd"

# Check out the ArcGIS Spatial Analyst extension license
arcpy.CheckOutExtension("Spatial")

# Execute LowestPosition
outLowestPosition = LowestPosition([inRaster01, inRaster02, inRaster03])

# Save the output 
outLowestPosition.save("C:/sapyexamples/output/outlp")

Environments

Licensing information

  • ArcGIS Desktop Basic: Requires Spatial Analyst
  • ArcGIS Desktop Standard: Requires Spatial Analyst
  • ArcGIS Desktop Advanced: Requires Spatial Analyst

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