Geocoding with SQL Server

Link - Geocoding With SQL Server

With the release of the Google Maps API, I wanted to try out some mapping. This ended up being the fairfaxinfo.com project. As nice as the Google API is, it does nothing to help with the hardest part of mapping: getting addresses translated into longitude/latitude. The only free service I could find was www.geocoder.us, but I didn’t want to rely on it being up/free forever. The code is available in PERL with a Berkley DB, but I would much rather chew on tinfoil than try and read someone else’s perl code. So, after much headscratching, fist pounding, key banging, debugging, eye wateringly boring (but thorough) census documentation, and in general driving everyone around me crazy, I have finally managed to use the Tiger/Line census data and SQL Server to geocode addresses.

I found this during a totally unrelated search for Oracle database backup (kind of makes you wonder how Google works sometimes). Anyway it is a pretty good method of geocoding addresses using Tiger/Line census data and SQL Server.



Date
August 23, 2005