This is a question out of curiosity rather than a problem as I am not the most experienced with raster datasets and I wonder if there is a better solution to my current approach. I am trying create a new raster dataset based off the conditions of two raster datasets. i.e. if population size <100 and mean age <10, reclassify to value 1. Now the issue is not creating a conditional statement but if there are several possible categories - say 49, that would require 49 multiple conditional statements. For example:
OutRas = Con((pop_ras < 100) & (age_ras < 10), 1, Con(pop_ras > 100) & ((pop_ras < 200) & (age_ras < 10), 2, ..., 0))
At the moment I use the following procedure:
1) reclassify population into 7 categories
2) reclassify age into 7 categories
3) add age and population (to create 49 classes)
This approach would require 3 geoprocessing steps as opposed to one but require considerable less time scripting. I feel that there might be a simpler solution that I am not realization (perhaps a lookup table, SQL). Any thoughts? ideas? Which method is better - speed?