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Google Geocoding Service – get latitude, longitude from address, postcode


Google has a very handy web service available for geocoding. Very often we require to know the longitude, latitude of a postcode, may be for finding distance between 2 places or any other reasons (who cares) and as always, Google is ready with the service before you realize you’ll need that :-) . This is the beauty of google – they thinks ahead.
To use the service, at first, you need to get a google api key for your site which takes less than 30 seconds from here.

Following is the typical format of the request string to get geocoding information:

http://maps.google.com/maps/geo?q=95678&output=json&oe=utf8&sensor=false&key=your_key_here

Description:

  • q = address that you are searching for, it can be anything from a postcode to any full or partial address. Google will search the best matching result for you.
  • output = this is the output format of the response. Can be json, xml, kml or csv. Isn’t it great?
  • oe = output encoding format. This is optional but strongly encouraged.
  • sensor = value can be either true or false. This indicates that whether the request is coming from any device with location sensor.
  • key = your google api key

    • There are lot other options to be added. You can find official documentation here

    Following is a simple geocoding script I wrote in PHP to get the lat/long of a postcode (it can be any address format other than postcode). Ask me in comments if you want the script, I’ll mail it to you.
    Open the app in new window

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    This entry was posted on Thursday, June 11th, 2009 and is filed under Google Map. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

    1. #1 by Ryan McDermott on July 25th, 2009

      Great script, I\’ve been looking for this! can you plz send me it?

      thanks!

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    2. #2 by Imran on July 25th, 2009

      Hi Ryan, Sent to your email address. Thanks a lot for coming.

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    3. #3 by steve on August 7th, 2009

      thats just what ive been looking could you please send me the script?

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    4. #4 by Imran on August 7th, 2009

      Hi Steve,
      Sent it to your email. Thanks for coming.

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