Avoiding garbage: clean and prep your data
We all know the old saying "garbage in, garbage out" but what does that mean for your geocoding data? Using complete input addresses that are based on the country's postal authority standards may lead to better matches and/or better locations in the geocoded output.
What tips or tricks have you incorporated when you prep your data? Feel free to click "Reply" and add your comments.
Common guidelines include:
- Input address lists should be as complete as possible based on postal authority standards for the country. Review for misspellings, leading or trailing spaces, and postcodes consistent with the named City.
- Tip: The Universal Postal Union website is a good source for finding addressing standards by country.
Make a selection in their "Addressing area" and click Display. The corresponding PDF provides a link to the country's postal website, describes the expected format, and includes some addressing examples.
- When doing multi-country geocoding, be sure to use the three-letter ISO country code, defined by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
- Sort your input table by postcode before geocoding to help with performance.
- For single-line input, punctuation is generally ignored. However, using separators (commas, semicolons, etc.) between different address elements may improve results and performance.
Examples
The examples below demonstrate forward geocoding from an address, reverse geocoding from x,y coordinates, and multi-line input. They contain both an optional header line and optional input fields.
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Forward geocoding from an address
mainAddress;areaName3;areaName1;postalCode;country
26 EDISON DR;NISKAYUNA;NY;12309;USA
92 MCCRACKEN RD;MILLBURY;MA;01527;USA
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Reverse geocoding from x,y coordinates
X|Y|Country
-113.532|53.5421|CAN
-115.423|32.6561|MEX
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Multi-line input record
Id|inAddressLine1|inCity|inStateProvince|inPostcode|inCountryName|inCountry_ISO3
1|SALURNER STR 15|INNSBRUCK||6020|AUSTRIA|AUT
2|10751 WESTMINSTER DR|SOUTHWOLD|ON|N0L2G0|CANADA|CAN
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Eileen Potter
Knowledge Community Shared Account
Shelton CT
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