Address format for International yellow page searches
March 30, 2005 7:34 AM Subscribe
I'm working on a Web site where users will be able to search for events occurring on or around the same day across the World - US, Canada, Mexico, South America, Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia etc. and am looking for a decent way to do such a search.
The only thing that seems consistent is City & Country. The only problem using that is in the US, there are cities with the same name in different states and in Canada, cities with the same name in different provinces. I'm sure this problem is duplicated elsewhere around the world.
I'd like to know how I should format the address input field so I'm inclusive of all countries and then how I should setup the search.
Should I have City, Zip Code, Country and just state that the Zip code is for Canada and the US? I know the UK and other countries have codes as well.
Is there a master database of "postal codes" that I can use that has relationship info? So if I search in "01970" it will show me events nearby, say, around 10mi away?
Thanks in advance for any ideas.
The only thing that seems consistent is City & Country. The only problem using that is in the US, there are cities with the same name in different states and in Canada, cities with the same name in different provinces. I'm sure this problem is duplicated elsewhere around the world.
I'd like to know how I should format the address input field so I'm inclusive of all countries and then how I should setup the search.
Should I have City, Zip Code, Country and just state that the Zip code is for Canada and the US? I know the UK and other countries have codes as well.
Is there a master database of "postal codes" that I can use that has relationship info? So if I search in "01970" it will show me events nearby, say, around 10mi away?
Thanks in advance for any ideas.
I'd go with country, city, with an optional state/province/region. Maybe an optional zip/postal code. Keep in mind, though, that not all countries use numeric postal codes.
posted by signal at 8:54 AM on March 30, 2005
posted by signal at 8:54 AM on March 30, 2005
"ZIP" is strictly U.S. of American--it stands for "zoning improvement plan." Postal code is the neutral term.
Different countries have different orderings of address elements as well--France puts the postal code before the city.
If you have access to OS X, you can play around with Address Book and see how different addresses are formatted by popping up the menu under the Address label and selecting the "change address format..." submenu.
I'm not aware of a master, international postal-code database, and if it exists, it'd be very pricey. I believe that official US Zip code databases are also pretty expensive, although there are more dated, less accurate ones out there for less money.
The next trick is doing the math that takes a postal code converted to a geographic coordinate, and working out what fits in a certain radius of that.
I know that Joshua Schachter used to run a Geohacking mailing list as an adjunct to geourl.org, and it was concerned with exactly this sort of question; since he's handed that off, I don't know if the list is still active, but you might hit up the current maintainer of geourl for ideas.
posted by adamrice at 8:56 AM on March 30, 2005
Different countries have different orderings of address elements as well--France puts the postal code before the city.
If you have access to OS X, you can play around with Address Book and see how different addresses are formatted by popping up the menu under the Address label and selecting the "change address format..." submenu.
I'm not aware of a master, international postal-code database, and if it exists, it'd be very pricey. I believe that official US Zip code databases are also pretty expensive, although there are more dated, less accurate ones out there for less money.
The next trick is doing the math that takes a postal code converted to a geographic coordinate, and working out what fits in a certain radius of that.
I know that Joshua Schachter used to run a Geohacking mailing list as an adjunct to geourl.org, and it was concerned with exactly this sort of question; since he's handed that off, I don't know if the list is still active, but you might hit up the current maintainer of geourl for ideas.
posted by adamrice at 8:56 AM on March 30, 2005
In regards to being inclusive, City, State/Province, Postal Code, Country will be universally understood. (As for setting up the search, I'm of no help.)
It's not exactly what you're asking for, but this site on international address formats may be helpful. Also check their list of links.
posted by desuetude at 9:18 AM on March 30, 2005
It's not exactly what you're asking for, but this site on international address formats may be helpful. Also check their list of links.
posted by desuetude at 9:18 AM on March 30, 2005
This thread is closed to new comments.
BTW, Canada calls them Postal Codes, not ZIP Codes, and they have an embedded space.
posted by smackfu at 7:51 AM on March 30, 2005