Switzerland (CHE)

This section defines the supported geocoding datasets, operations, and input and output field information for Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Content that references Switzerland also pertains to Liechtenstein.

Supported Geocoding Datasets

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

Note: Custom User Dictionaries are supported.
Geocoding Dataset City Centroid Suburb/Village Centroid Postal Centroid Street Centroid Interpolated Street Address Point-level Address Point of Interest
TomTom German, French, Italian Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No

Supported Operations

The following operations are supported for Switzerland:
  • 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.
  • Interactive Geocoding— Returns potential match candidates as the adddress is typed in.
  • Global Key Lookup—Returns geocode candidates when given a unique key as input. USA MLD and AUS GNAF data only.

Input Fields

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

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:

Vogelsangstrasse 17
8307 Illnau-Effretikon
areaName1 String Not used.
areaName2 String Specifies the province. Optional.
areaName3 String Specifies the city or town. A city alias is also supported. For example, Losanna is one of the aliases for Lausanne.
areaName4 String Not used.
postalCode String Specifies the 4-digit postal code. The initial digit indicates the largest postal regions (routing areas). The second digit indicates the region within this area (routing district). The third digit indicates the route, and the fourth the destination locality. Larger towns may have an additional digit after the town name to indicate the sorting district.
country String The three-letter ISO 3166-1 Alpha-3 country code. For Switzerland, the country code is CHE. For Liechtenstein, the country code is LIE. Required for forward geocoding.

Address Guidelines for Switzerland

The Switzerland geocoder supports locations in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. 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 Swiss addresses, see the Swiss Post website: www.swisspost.ch. For additional information on the Liechtenstein postal system, see the Liechtenstein Post Corp website: www.post.li.

  • Required fields—Addresses must contain either a city or a postal code.
  • Thoroughfare types—German, French, and Italian thoroughfare types and their common abbreviations are recognized and fully supported on input and output. Over 300 thoroughfare types are recognized.
  • Common words and abbreviations—You can use German, French, and Italian common words, directionals, house number indicators, and abbreviations that are typically used in addresses.
  • Numbers, numeric equivalents, and ordinals—Numbered streets are mapped to the named equivalents in German, French, or Italian. Ordinals are also recognized in input addresses.

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:

[street_info][address_number][postal_code][area]

Where:
  • [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.
  • [postal_code] is the postal code.
  • [area] is the city only, or city plus supporting information, such as state, province, locality.
  • Either the [area] or [postal_code] is required.

For best results, put a comma between the street information and the last address line information.

Custom Options

There are no options specific to Switzerland.

Output Fields

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

Note: The placeName, addressNumber, unitType and unitValue field values are only returned when a geocoding 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 Not used.
areaName2 The province.
areaName3 The city or town.
areaName4 Not used.
postCode1 The 4-digit postal code.
postCode2 The 1-digit sorting code.
country The three-letter ISO 3166-1 Alpha-3 country code. For Switzerland, the country code is CHE.
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 Switzerland does not have any custom output fields.