Shaded Area Map by City using ZIP code as input

I am trying to produce a Shaded Area map where US cities are shaded based on a count field. The data is very simple, consisiting of ZIP code and Count. I have successfully imported data using a .CSV file and UDL (SQL Server View).

I can execute "DisplayDataMap()" using the imported data and can create shaded area maps of the following geographic areas: US State [geoShowByRegion1], US County [geoShowByRegion2] and US ZIP [geoShowByPostal1]. Everything is great until I change the DisplayDataMap to use geoShowByCity. Then I receive the error: "Cannot map data because the selected geography type is invalid."

So I tried to do the same thing through the MapPoint UI itself. When I import the data by ZIP, there is no option to shade by city.

Am I doing something wrong or does MapPoint (2004 or 2006) not have the capability to create a shaded area map by city?

Thanks

The good news - You're not doing anything "wrong"
The bad news - Mappoint does not define cartographic boundaries for city-level mapping. Nor does it define any relation between cities and zipcodes. It only has "pinpoint" location data for cities.

You could conceivably obtain a list of zipcodes mapped to city, and then shade based on zipcode and get the results you're after by aggregating zipcodes to city and vice-versa.

HTH
Paul

I will stop pulling my hair out now. We have cartographic boundaries for ZIPs which we use in Google maps - we will have to find them for cities for MapPoint now.

Thank you very much, Paul. I really appreciate your help.

Kevin

You might try delving into census tract boundaries, which are usually somewhat equivalent to "populated places." Luckily, mappoint recognizes census tracts as both pinpoint- and boundary-level objects. In fact, someone may have already compiled a lookup list for this relation.

-Paul