How to identify Polygon within another Polygon layer

Question

I have two polygons files. The first one has several smaller polygons within it eg.a shapefile with all US states, the other polygon file has a single polygon eg. a river basin. I am trying to get all the polygon (states) within the second polygon(river basin). Intersection tool in Arcgis10 clips the first polygon whereas I want all the intersecting polygon to maintain its original boundaries.In this way I will have the exact state boundaries. The basic idea here is to identify all the polygons intersecting another polygon layer. thanks in advance.

Answer 1

u can use select by location or spatial join

Spatial Join

select by location