Testing if two different rasters have overlapping data (not extents) before using raster calculator tool in ArcMap

Question

I am writing a toolbox script that will generate a difference surface using the raster calculator in ArcMap by subtracting a raster of interest from many other existing rasters, then outputting the raster statistics. The rasters are elevation grids. Some have the same extents, but the data only has overlapping empty cells. I am trying to find a way to test if there are overlapping data cells (not extents) before the raster calculator tool is performed on the two surfaces.

Does anyone know of a concise way to do this?

Otherwise, I think I will just have to check if the resulting raster layer is all no values and delete if true, but I'd like to avoid generating the difference surface beforehand if possible.

Answer 1

It seems that the most robust and fastest workflow:

Con(~IsNull("LARGE"),1)

to create LARGE_BINARY and

to test overlap with others. Output "abc" table without overlap will have no records:

Easily scripted as well.

I tried an alternative, which is essentially the same as yours:

Con(~IsNull("LARGE"),1)*Con(~IsNull("LiDAR2016DEMHillshade2.TIF"),1)

Output:

and

failed:

So your idea is not working or maybe I don't know how to make it work.