I have a point shapefile that corresponds to locations of animals captured. I've joined a table to this shapefile with additional information on each attribute, namely nb. animals caught in each point. I have another shapefile (hexagonal grid) and my goal is to sum the nb. animals caught for each point that falls inside each hexagon. In a preliminary search on the web, I found that maybe "join by location" could help me do this, but the problem is that I'm getting an "incorrect field name" error, for a field that doesn't even exist in any of the original tables and, on the other hand, it won't let me select the specific field I want it to sum..
Any suggestions? Is there any way I can do this without going into writing scripts mode?
Best Answer
There is another tool that does a good job for such purposes: In QGIS processing toolbox with SAGA data provider activated you may search for a tool called 'point statistics for polygons'. Herein you can provide your hexagons (polygons) and your animal observations as points, select an attribute to analyze and the statistical metrics you want.
I prefer this tool because QGIS 'join attributes by location' produces weird results under special circumstances, cp. QGIS 'join attributes by location' algorithm produces strange results for min, max
(screenshot will be added)