rgeocodio: Tools to Work with the Geocodio 'API'
In hrbrmstr/rgeocodio: Tools to Work with the 'Geocodio' 'API'

Description Details Geocoding Accuracy AddresFormats Fields Author(s)

An R interface to forward & reverse geocoding (with many extra possible return fields) lookups using the Geocodio API.

NOTE: You need an API key to use this package. The functions in this package look for this API key in the GEOCODIO_API_KEY environment variable.

It is highly recommended that you store this API key in your ~/.Renviron file.

Geocoding (also known as forward geocoding) allows you to convert one or more addresses into geographic coordinates (i.e. latitude and longitude). Geocoding will also parse the address and append additional information (e.g. if you specify a zip code, Geocodio will return the city and state corresponding the zip code as well).

Geocodio supports geocoding of addresses, cities and zip codes in various formats.

You can either geocode a single address at a time or collect multiple addresses in batches in order to geocode up to 10,000 addresses at the time.

Reverse geocoding is the process of turning geographic coordinates (i.e. latitude and longitude) into a human-readable address.

Geocodio will find matching street(s) and determine the correct house number based on the location. Note that Geocodio does not guarantee to return a valid house number; it is our closest approximation.

As with forward geocoding, you can either geocode a single set of coordinates at the time or collect multiple coordinates in batches and reverse geocode up to 10,000 coordinates at the time.

Each geocoded result is returned with an accuracy score, which is a decimal number ranging from 0.00 to 1.00. This score is generated by the internal Geocodio engine based on how accurate the result is believed to be. The higher the score the better the result. Results are always returned ordered by accuracy score.

For example, if against all odds an address simply can’t be found — instead of returning no results, Geocodio will return a geocoded point based on the zip code or city but with a much lower accuracy score and accuracy type set to “place”.

Generally, accuracy scores that are larger than or equal to 0.8 are usually helpful, whereas results with lower accuracy scores might be very rough matches.

An accuracy type is also returned with all results. The accuracy types are different for forward and reverse geocoding results.

We recommend using a combination of the accuracy score and accuracy type to evaluate and filter the returned results.

Geocodio supports geocoding the following entities:

Streets with or without house numbers (requires a city or a zip in conjuction)
Intersections
Cities
Zip codes
States

If a city is provided without a state, Geocodio will automatically guess and add the state based on what it most likely might be. Geocodio also understands shorthands for both streets and cities, e.g. NYC, SF, etc. are acceptable city names.

You can also geocode intersections. Just specify the two streets that you want to geocode in your query.

NOTE: Specifying additional return fields will deplete API credits faster.

All forward and reverse geocoding functions take an optional fields parameter which enables retrieving extra information for a location.

Congressional Districts

You can retrieve the congressional district for an address or coordinate using cd, cd113, cd114, or cd115 in the fields query parameter. cd will always return the congressional district for the current progress while e.g. cd113 will continue to show the congressional district for the 113th congress.

The field returns the full name of the congressional district, the district number the congress number and the range of years the congress are covering.

State Legislative Districts

You can retrieve the state legislative districts for an address or coordinate using stateleg in the fields query parameter.

The field will return both the house and senate state legislative district (also known as lower and upper) with the full name and district number for each. For areas with a unicameral legislature (such as Washington DC or Nebraska), only the senate key is returned.

School Districts

You can retrieve the school districts for an address or coordinate using school in the fields query parameter.

The field will return either a unified school district or separate elementary and secondary fields depending on the area. Each school district is returned with its full name, the LEA (Local Education Agency) code as well as the grades supported. Kindergarden is abbreviated as KG and Pre-kindergarten is abbreviated as PK.

Census Block/Tract & FIPS codes

See the official documentation.

Timezone

See the official documentation.

Bob Rudis (bob@rud.is)

hrbrmstr/rgeocodio documentation built on May 17, 2020, 3:37 a.m.