Find by Value

This is an advanced version of the original peer finder tool. It is more powerful than that tool, but it is also more difficult to use. Thus, this tool may not be a good option for beginning users.

For basic peer finding, users should use the linked rank lists included in the profile. These lists give immediate peers within a state, or for all states, for most data in the USA Counties in Profile. Just click on the hyper linked rank number next to the desired item.

Getting Started With the 'Find by Value' Tool

1. Select area to search: Select what range of counties you want to restrict the search to. This can be all counties in the US, only counties within a given state, or counties in a target state and any of it's neigbors (states that touch the target state).

2a. Select Criteria to search on: This dropdown box contains a select group of data variables from the USA Counties in profile. Select a variable to search on and proceed to step 2b.

2b. Search by Peer or Range: First, determine if you want to search by peer or range by clicking on the radio button.

To search for peers of a given county, select the state that the county is in from the state dropdown box. Next select the desired county. The system will search for other counties with values within 10% of the value of the selected county for that variable.
To search for counties by range, click on the range radio button. This will provide options to set minimum and maximum criteria. To set a value, enter a number in the box under the appropriate label. You can include either a minimum, a maximum, or both. Non-number symbols like ',', '%', or '$' will be ignored. Other non-number text will prevent the query from running. If you enter nothing, it will just show data for the step 2a data variable.

After making these selections, click on the 'Add to query list' button to add the parameter to the criteria collection text box at the bottom of the tool.

3. Repeat steps 2a and 2b: Repeat these steps until all desired parameters have been added to the parameter text box. The system will look for counties that meet all of the selection criteria. To submit this query click on the 'Run Query' button. All of the entries in this box will be highlighted, and results will appear in the right frame.
4. Managing the parameter list: If you want to remove an individual item from the list, select the item and click on the 'Delete Selected Item' button. If multiple items are selected, only the first one will be deleted. To delete all items, click on the 'Clear All' button.

Useful tips: Many different criteria may be entered, but if the ranges are too narrow, no records will be returned. It is recommended that users start with broad ranges where possible and narrow them gradually to find a desired number of counties.
Counties used to select peers may not always show up in the results if other selection criteria exclude the peer. Otherwise, the peer will be highlighted on the map and in the table.