Bahamas (BHS)

This chapter defines the supported Geocode datasets, operations, and input and output field information for the Bahamas.

Supported Geocode Datasets

The following table lists the supported Geocode dataset(s) with the available geocoding levels for the Bahamas.


Geocode Dataset	Maximum Precision	Postcodes	Language	Geocode Level
NAVTEQ	Address Points	No	English	Premium

Supported Operations

The following operations are supported for Bahamas:

Geocoding—Takes one or more addresses as input and returns latitude/longitude coordinates and other information.
Reverse Geocoding—Takes one or more latitude and longitude coordinates as input and returns the address of the location.

Input Fields

The input address may contain some or all of the following address elements.


Field Name Parameter	Type	Description
placeName	String	Specifies the building name, place name, Point of Interest (POI), company or firm name associated with the input address. Optional.
mainAddress	String	Single Line Input—If no other address field is populated, then the mainAddress entry will be treated as a single line input. Single line input can consist of multiple input address fields; these should be entered in the typical address order for the country. For more details, refer to the section "Single Line Input" below. Street Address—If the post address components (city, postalCode, etc.) are provided separately or in the lastLine field, then the contents of mainAddress will be treated as the street address part and can include company name, house number, building names and street names. Optional. Street Intersection Input—To enter an intersection, specify the two street names separated by a double ampersand (&&).
lastLine	String	The last line of the address. Optional. For example: Mickey St Nassau, New Providence
areaName1	String	Specifies the district. Optional.
areaName2	String	Not used.
areaName3	String	Specifies the city or town. Using a town alias is also supported.
areaName4	String	Not used.
postalCode	String	Not used - the Bahamas does not have a postal code system.
country	String	The three-letter ISO 3166-1 Alpha-3 country code. For the Bahamas, the country code is BHS. Required for forward geocoding.

Address Guidelines for the Bahamas

Follow these suggestions to ensure that your input address data is in the best format possible for optimum matching and geocoding. For additional information on Bahamian addresses, see the Postal Service in the Bahamas website: http://bahamas-guide.info/travel.basics/postal.services/

Required fields—Addresses must contain a city. Postal codes are not used in Bahamas.
Thoroughfare types—Thoroughfare types and their common abbreviations are recognized and fully supported on input and output.
Common words and abbreviations—The geocoder recognizes common words, directionals, house number indicators, and abbreviations used in addresses and can geocode these addresses successfully.

Single Line Input

Instead of entering each address component in separate fields, you can enter the entire address in the mainAddress input field with the address elements ordered as follows:

[address_number][street_info][area_name_3][area_name_1]

Where:

[address_number] is optional.
[street_info] consists of the street name, street type and any unit type, unit value or pre- or post-directional information (e.g. East, West, etc.).
[area_name_3] is the city.
[area_name_1] is the district.

For best results, put a comma between street information and the lastline (e.g. city and postal) information.

Custom Options

There are no options specific to the Bahamas.

Parsed Address Output Fields

The following table lists the parsed address fields returned for a candidate located in the Bahamas.

Note: The placeName, addressNumber, unitType and unitValue field values are only returned when the Geocode dataset that supports street address interpolation is installed.


Field Name	Description
mainAddressLine	The street address which may include company name, house number, building names and street names.
addressLastLine	The last line of the address.
placeName	The building name, place name, Point of Interest (POI), company or firm name associated with the address.
areaName1	District.
areaName2	Not used.
areaName3	City or town.
areaName4	Not used.
postCode1	Not used.
postCode2	Not used.
country	ISO 3166-1 Alpha-3 country code or country name. For the Bahamas, the country code is BHS.
addressNumber	The address number.
streetName	The street or road name.
unitType	The unit type such as APT, STE, etc.
unitValue	The unit value/number, such as "3B".
customFields	The Bahamas does not have any custom output fields.