What function does the "Perform Geocoding" tool serve in ArcGIS Pro?

The "Perform Geocoding" tool in ArcGIS Pro is specifically designed to convert addresses into geographic coordinates, allowing users to take textual address data and translate it into spatial data that can be mapped. This process is essential for visualizing and analyzing location-based data, enabling users to find the geographical points corresponding to specific addresses, such as homes, businesses, or points of interest.

Once geocoding is performed, the output can be used in various spatial analyses, map creation, and data integration tasks, facilitating better decision-making based on geographic locations.

The other options suggest functions that do not align with the primary role of the "Perform Geocoding" tool. Creating maps is a broader process that can incorporate various types of data visualization, while converting geographic coordinates into addresses would imply reverse geocoding, which is not what this tool does. Merging datasets refers to combining multiple layers or datasets into a unified set, which is unrelated to geocoding processes.