What is the primary function of the Clip tool in GIS?

The primary function of the Clip tool in GIS is to extract features that fall within a specified boundary, effectively limiting the output to only those parts of the data that intersect with the boundary layer. This is particularly useful when you want to focus on a specific geographic area or when you need to analyze only a certain subset of your data.

For example, if you have a dataset of national parks but you are only interested in those located within a particular state, you would use the Clip tool with the state boundary to generate a new dataset that includes only the parks within that state. This capability helps streamline data analysis by removing extraneous information and allows for more targeted evaluations based on specific geographic areas.

The other options do not describe the Clip tool's function accurately. The tool does not combine datasets or calculate statistics, which are functions of different tools in GIS. Instead, it strictly serves the purpose of defining and isolating features within a given boundary.