Google Geolocation API - Use longitude and latitude to get address in textbox?
77,548
Solution 1
What you describe is called Reverse Geocoding. Google provides a Geocoding Web Service API which you can call from your server-side application (using any language) to do reverse geocoding.
For example, the following request:
http://maps.google.com/maps/api/geocode/xml?latlng=40.714224,-73.961452&sensor=false
... will return a response that looks like the following (truncated):
<GeocodeResponse>
<status>OK</status>
<result>
<type>street_address</type>
<formatted_address>277 Bedford Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11211, USA</formatted_address>
<address_component>
<long_name>277</long_name>
<short_name>277</short_name>
<type>street_number</type>
</address_component>
<address_component>
<long_name>Bedford Ave</long_name>
<short_name>Bedford Ave</short_name>
<type>route</type>
</address_component>
<address_component>
<long_name>Brooklyn</long_name>
<short_name>Brooklyn</short_name>
<type>sublocality</type>
<type>political</type>
</address_component>
<address_component>
<long_name>New York</long_name>
<short_name>New York</short_name>
<type>locality</type>
<type>political</type>
</address_component>
<address_component>
<long_name>Kings</long_name>
<short_name>Kings</short_name>
<type>administrative_area_level_2</type>
<type>political</type>
</address_component>
<address_component>
<long_name>New York</long_name>
<short_name>NY</short_name>
<type>administrative_area_level_1</type>
<type>political</type>
</address_component>
<address_component>
<long_name>United States</long_name>
<short_name>US</short_name>
<type>country</type>
<type>political</type>
</address_component>
<address_component>
<long_name>11211</long_name>
<short_name>11211</short_name>
<type>postal_code</type>
</address_component>
<geometry>
<location>
<lat>40.7142330</lat>
<lng>-73.9612910</lng>
</location>
<location_type>ROOFTOP</location_type>
<viewport>
<southwest>
<lat>40.7110854</lat>
<lng>-73.9644386</lng>
</southwest>
<northeast>
<lat>40.7173806</lat>
<lng>-73.9581434</lng>
</northeast>
</viewport>
</geometry>
</result>
</GeocodeResponse>
However be aware that the Google Maps API Terms of Use seem to prohibit the storage of the results, unless the store acts as a cache for data that will used in Google Maps. You may want to get in touch with Google and enquire on the Google Maps API Premier to have more flexible terms of use for your geocoding requirements.
Solution 2
Here is a c# implementation. Please note that I am no c# programmer - so the code might be ugly. But it works. It gives you more than just the address. This is a console application, you should be able to adapt it for webforms or winforms easily.
using System;
using System.Threading;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Web;
using System.Xml;
using System.Xml.XPath;
namespace ReverseGeoLookup
{
// http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/geocoding/#ReverseGeocoding
public static string ReverseGeoLoc(string longitude, string latitude,
out string Address_ShortName,
out string Address_country,
out string Address_administrative_area_level_1,
out string Address_administrative_area_level_2,
out string Address_administrative_area_level_3,
out string Address_colloquial_area,
out string Address_locality,
out string Address_sublocality,
out string Address_neighborhood)
{
Address_ShortName = "";
Address_country = "";
Address_administrative_area_level_1 = "";
Address_administrative_area_level_2 = "";
Address_administrative_area_level_3 = "";
Address_colloquial_area = "";
Address_locality = "";
Address_sublocality = "";
Address_neighborhood = "";
XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
try
{
doc.Load("http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/xml?latlng=" + latitude + "," + longitude + "&sensor=false");
XmlNode element = doc.SelectSingleNode("//GeocodeResponse/status");
if (element.InnerText == "ZERO_RESULTS")
{
return ("No data available for the specified location");
}
else
{
element = doc.SelectSingleNode("//GeocodeResponse/result/formatted_address");
string longname="";
string shortname="";
string typename ="";
bool fHit=false;
XmlNodeList xnList = doc.SelectNodes("//GeocodeResponse/result/address_component");
foreach (XmlNode xn in xnList)
{
try
{
longname = xn["long_name"].InnerText;
shortname = xn["short_name"].InnerText;
typename = xn["type"].InnerText;
fHit = true;
switch (typename)
{
//Add whatever you are looking for below
case "country":
{
Address_country = longname;
Address_ShortName = shortname;
break;
}
case "locality":
{
Address_locality = longname;
//Address_locality = shortname; //Om Longname visar sig innehålla konstigheter kan man använda shortname istället
break;
}
case "sublocality":
{
Address_sublocality = longname;
break;
}
case "neighborhood":
{
Address_neighborhood = longname;
break;
}
case "colloquial_area":
{
Address_colloquial_area = longname;
break;
}
case "administrative_area_level_1":
{
Address_administrative_area_level_1 = longname;
break;
}
case "administrative_area_level_2":
{
Address_administrative_area_level_2 = longname;
break;
}
case "administrative_area_level_3":
{
Address_administrative_area_level_3 = longname;
break;
}
default:
fHit = false;
break;
}
if (fHit)
{
Console.Write(typename);
Console.ForegroundColor = ConsoleColor.Green;
Console.Write("\tL: " + longname + "\tS:" + shortname + "\r\n");
Console.ForegroundColor = ConsoleColor.Gray;
}
}
catch (Exception e)
{
//Node missing either, longname, shortname or typename
fHit = false;
Console.Write(" Invalid data: ");
Console.ForegroundColor = ConsoleColor.Red;
Console.Write("\tX: " + xn.InnerXml + "\r\n");
Console.ForegroundColor = ConsoleColor.Gray;
}
}
//Console.ReadKey();
return (element.InnerText);
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
return ("(Address lookup failed: ) " + ex.Message);
}
}
}
Solution 3
What you are trying to do is reverse geocoding (See Daniel's answer).
An example implementation in PHP:
/**
* reverse geocoding via google maps api
* convert lat/lon into a name
*/
function reverse_geocode($lat, $lon) {
$url = "http://maps.google.com/maps/api/geocode/json?latlng=$lat,$lon&sensor=false";
$data = json_decode(file_get_contents($url));
if (!isset($data->results[0]->formatted_address)){
return "unknown Place";
}
return $data->results[0]->formatted_address;
}
Solution 4
private string getLocationByGeoLocation(string longitude, string latitude)
{
string locationName = string.Empty;
try
{
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(longitude) || string.IsNullOrEmpty(latitude))
return "";
string url = string.Format("https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/xml?latlng={0},{1}&sensor=false", latitude, longitude);
WebRequest request = WebRequest.Create(url);
using (WebResponse response = (HttpWebResponse)request.GetResponse())
{
using (StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(response.GetResponseStream(), Encoding.UTF8))
{
DataSet dsResult = new DataSet();
dsResult.ReadXml(reader);
try
{
foreach (DataRow row in dsResult.Tables["result"].Rows)
{
string fullAddress = row["formatted_address"].ToString();
}
}
catch (Exception)
{
}
}
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
lblError.Text = ex.Message;
}
return locationName;
}
Solution 5
protected void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
this.calcularRota(txtOrigem.Text.Trim(), txtDestino.Text.Trim());
}
public void calcularRota(string latitude, string longitude)
{
//URL do distancematrix - adicionando endereco de origem e destino
string url = string.Format("http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/xml?latlng={0},{1}&sensor=false", latitude, longitude);
XElement xml = XElement.Load(url);
// verifica se o status é ok
if (xml.Element("status").Value == "OK")
{
//Formatar a resposta
Label3.Text = string.Format("<strong>Origem</strong>: {0}",
//Pegar endereço de origem
xml.Element("result").Element("formatted_address").Value);
//Pegar endereço de destino
}
else
{
Label3.Text = String.Concat("Ocorreu o seguinte erro: ", xml.Element("status").Value);
}
}
}
Comments
-
Brett almost 2 years
I have noticed a lot of information about how to get your location using Google geolocation looks, based on IP address. But I am wondering if and how I could use this service to input a location (longitude and latitude) and get back the current address, or at least a city, state.
I would like to do this in C#, but I'll work with any language.
Any advice?
-
igorw almost 14 yearsThis is not an implementation of reverse geocoding.
-
Smar almost 14 yearsI meant as example, how whole thing worked... Maybe I should've been more exact. I thought that just showing off how it actually works would be enough.
-
Brett almost 14 yearsWorks like a charm thanks. I won't be storing the data, so that shouldn't be an issue. Thanks!!!
-
Mahe over 10 years@Daniel, is this google maps api free? limited access? Please specify. I want to make use of it not violating terms and conditions of google maps api.
