More creative or efficient solution for a proximity table (1:m) to all points within X distance, keeping obs. where no points fall within X distance?

Question

I have a proximity question. I am open to Arc or Python solutions. I am mainly asking because I think I am lacking a little creativity in approaching the situation.

The Situation

I have two point files (FileA, n = 100, and FileB, n = 10). I would like to know the nearest distance from each n of FileA to the n of FileB so long as the n of FileA is within X distance of FileB.

Current Approach

I am currently attempting an Arc solution via a 1:m spatial join, and then generating near distances based on the joined object IDs.

The Question/Problem

I'm trying to push my GIS skills and am at a creative roadblock as to how I could improve my solution. I see potential as I may be asking a roundabout buffer question, or perhaps missing some kind of crucial tool/intuition about the problem.

Apologies if this is not really a Stack appropriate question/format - will remove ASAP if so!

Solution via PostGIS (not quite comfortable with PostGIS yet): How to get distance between one point and all other points in a table?

Answer 1

An ArcGIS solution here. The Point Distance Tool will calculate distances from each input point to all points in the other layer. You can delete the records greater than your tolerance. Finally, run Summary Statistics to find the minimum distance for each input Objectid/FID.