Merging Zipcodes that have changed over time

[cs545]

I'm trying to merge a two shapefiles for Spanish Zipcodes (Seccions). One shapefile has the zipcodes with purchasing power, the other has other demographic data, and I'm trying to join them together to create an encompassing shapefile. 

However, the shapefile with the purchasing power attached has less zipcodes (I'm guessing that the zipcodes have changed over time). Is there a way to merge them together (obviously the join tool results in many unmatched zipcodes)? Or match them to the exact boundaries spatially?

I've heard of the fuzzy match tool but not sure if this is right because it only allows one input.

Thanks for your help!

[Philip · Accepted solution]

I can think of a few ways to approach the problem.

The best approach I can think of would be a spatial union.

What it is: http://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/tool-reference/analysis/how-union-analysis-works.htm

Macro to perform in Alteryx: https://gallery.alteryx.com/#!app/SpatialUnionMacro/57e2f697f499c7128c7cebd8

The spatial union approach has the benefits of incorporating all information from both shapefiles.

There are some other approaches, but they would be dealing with how to aggregate spatially and deciding which shapefile would be the zip codes you'd consider true. If you don't like the union approach, I can describe some others.

[cs545]

Thanks so much! This seemed to fix the issue, I don't really quite understand how it works but I've now got Spanish zipcodes that match without too many gaps. Really helpful, thank you!