World Geocoder (XWG) - Countries and Datasets Supported for Basic Reverse Geocode
This chapter defines the supported Geocode datasets, operations, and input and output field information for the World Geocoder.
Supported Data Sets
The following table lists the supported Geocode dataset(s) with the available geocoding levels for the World Geocoder.
Data Set | City Centroid | Suburb/Village Centroid | Postal Centroid | Street Centroid | Interpolated Street Address | Point-level Address | Point of Interest |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
TomTom, MBI, NE, Precisely World data | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Supported Operations
- Geocoding—Takes one or more addresses as input and returns latitude/longitude coordinates and other information.
Country Coverage
The World Geocoder has coverage for almost every country in the world. The accuracy and scope of coverage varies depending on the quality of the available data source. Some countries include postcode data, while other countries have geographic coverage only. See the following table for a complete list of Geographic coverage by country. For a complete list of Geographic coverage by country, see Country Geographic Data Coverage. For Postal coverage by country, see Country Postal Data Coverage
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.
Note: Information provided in this field will be ignored by the World Geocoder. |
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 (&&). Note: Information provided in this field will be ignored by the
World Geocoder. |
lastLine | String | The last line of the address. Optional. For example:
2 Manchester Rd |
areaName1 | String |
The name of one of the following depending on the country:
|
areaName2 | String |
The name of one of the following depending on the country:
|
areaName3 | String | Specifies the city or town name. Your input address should use the official
city name. This will produce the best geocode results. For Thailand, this field contains the subdistrict (tambon). |
areaName4 | String |
The name of one of the following depending on the country:
|
postalCode | String | The postal code in the appropriate format for the country |
country | String | The three-letter ISO 3166-1 Alpha-3 country code. For the World Geocoder, the country code is XWG. Required for forward geocoding. |
Address Guidelines for the World Geocoder
Follow these suggestions to ensure that your street input data is in the best format possible for optimum matching and geocoding.
- Address Aliases — Some countries have alternative administrative names. For example, there may be an official name for a city or town, but there may also be common but unofficial alternative name for the same city or town. If alias information is available in the source data, World includes this alias in the database. This enables World to geocode successfully when alternative names are used in input addresses.
- Language Aliases — Some countries have more than one official or prominent language. For example, the same town may be commonly known by both German and Italian names. If language alias information is available in the source data, World uses this in the database. This enables World to geocode successfully when alternative language names are used in input addresses.
-
State or Province Abbreviations — In some countries, the state or province
is an important part of the address and often this address element is abbreviated. For
selected countries, these state/province abbreviations are recognized by World. For
example, in the United States each state has a two-letter abbreviation (such as CA for
California). Similarly, Netherlands, state abbreviations (such as GLD for Gelderland) are
recognized.
The World Geocoder accepts state/province abbreviations for the following countries:
- Australia (AUS)
- Canada (CAN)
- Italy (ITA)
- Mexico (MEX)
- Netherlands (NLD)
- United States (USA)
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 in the typical order for the country. Some examples of common address element ordering is as follows:
[address_number][street_info][postal_code][area]
[address_number][street_info][area][postal_code]
[street_info][address_number][area][postal_code]
[street_info][address_number][postal_code][area]
[street_info][address_number][area]
[address_number][street_info][area]
- [street_info] consists of the street name, street type and any pre- or post-directional information (e.g. East, West, etc.). Optional.
- [address_number] is optional.
- [area] is the city only, or city plus supporting information, such as state, province, locality.
- [postal_code] is the postal code.
- Either the [area] or [postal_code] is required.
Custom Options
There are no custom options for the XWG geocoder.
Parsed Address Output Fields
The following table lists the parsed address fields returned for a candidate located by the World Geocoder.
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 |
The meaning of varies by country:
|
areaName2 |
This field contains an area that is smaller than a state/province but larger than a city. The specific area varies by country:
|
areaName3 | The city or town. |
areaName4 | The meaning varies by country:
|
postCode1 | The postal code for the address. The format of the postal code varies by country. |
postCode2 | The postal code extension, if applicable to the country. |
country | The three-letter ISO 3166-1 Alpha-3 country code. For the World Geocoder, the country code is XWG. |
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 World Geocoder custom output fields are listed in the following section. |
Custom Output Fields
The following table lists the output fields that are unique for the XWG geocoder.
- To return one or more of these custom output fields: In the Filters panel, click on XWG. Then under Return Values, select the desired output field(s).
- To return all custom output fields: Under Return Values, select Return all available information.
Name | Description |
---|---|
City Rank CITYRANK | This option returns the city ranking from 1 (highest) to 10 (lowest). Zero (0) means that a rank was not available. |