JGeocoder
Example
Project Documentation
Links
Under construction, I am really busy recently. So I can only write about the development plan but not able to do much real development work. If this sounds interesting to you please contact me. I believe a java based geocoder will have a usecase in many applications.
Once the Tiger/Line data is loaded into a relational database, it's actually not hard to estimate the lat/lon of a parsed and normalized address. Given the schema that was described in Data import module , the geocoding query will look something like the following:
--here we are querying the PA table
select t.tlid, t.fraddr, t.fraddl, t.toaddr, t.toaddl,
t.zipL, t.zipR, t.tolat, t.tolong, t.frlong, t.frlat,
t.long1, t.lat1, t.long2, t.lat2, t.long3, t.lat3, t.long4, t.lat4,
t.long5, t.lat5, t.long6, t.lat6, t.long7, t.lat7, t.long8, t.lat8,
t.long9, t.lat9, t.long10, t.lat10, t.fedirp, t.fetype, t.fedirs from TIGER_PA t
where t.fename = $street and
(
(t.fraddL <= $num and t.toaddL >= $num) or (t.fraddL >= $num and t.toaddL <= $num)
or (t.fraddR <= $num and t.toaddR >= $num) or (t.fraddR >= $num and t.toaddR <= $num)
)
and (t.zipL = $zip or t.zipR = $zip)
The above query will return a lat/lon range of which can be used to geocode the input address.
It's very common that an input address will be missing some information. Since we have an address database, we can definitely fill in the blanks. For example, given a zip code, we can fill in city, state if they are missing. Given just the city and state, we can figure out the zip code. The street types ('Street', 'Road', etc) and directions can be filled in also if they are missing.
For example:
123 South Main, Monkey Town, 19147 -> 123 S MAIN AVE, MONKEY TOWN, PA 19147
see Usage for details
JGeocoderConfig config = new JGeocoderConfig();
//you need to point JGeocoder to the data files
config.setJgeocoderDataHome("C:\\Users\\jliang\\Desktop\\jgeocoder\\data");
//and give JGeocoder a datasource object that contains Tiger/Line data
config.setTigerDataSource(H2DbDataSourceFactory.getH2DbDataSource("jdbc:h2:C:\\Users\\jliang\\Desktop\\jgeocoder\\tiger\\tiger;LOG=0"));
JGeocoder jg = new JGeocoder(config);
JGeocodeAddress addr = jg.geocodeAddress("lazaros pizza house 1743 south st philadelphia pa 19146");
System.out.println(addr);
The above outputs
net.sourceforge.jgeocoder.JGeocodeAddress@4c4975[
_parsedAddr={NAME=lazaros pizza house, PREDIR=null, TYPE=st, STATE=pa, NUMBER=1743, CITY=philadelphia, STREET=south, ZIP=19146}
_normalizedAddr={NAME=LAZAROS PIZZA HOUSE, PREDIR=null, TYPE=ST, NUMBER=1743, STATE=PA, CITY=PHILADELPHIA, STREET=SOUTH, ZIP=19146}
_geocodedAddr={NAME=LAZAROS PIZZA HOUSE, PREDIR=null, TLID=131407785, NUMBER=1743, CITY=PHILADELPHIA, COUNTY=PHILADELPHIA, LAT=39.944244, LON=-75.171906, TYPE=ST, STATE=PA, STREET=SOUTH, ZIP=19146, POSTDIR=null}
_acuracy=STREET
]
I am actively working on fuzzy search and performance
While the above query works, it however requires the inputs address component matches exactly to what is stored in the address database. For example, if there is a street named 'Petersons Street', then inputs of 'Peterson', 'Street' and 'Petreson', 'Street' (spelling) will not find a match. Therefore, it would be a good idea to allow some errors in the inputs by using fuzzy search/match techniques.
Many commercial quality geocoders have some form of fuzzy match feature (google map for instance). If you are interested in how to implement something similar, you can take a look at this article about spell-corrector from Peter Norvig.
I have no ideas what the performance will ending up to be, but 200/sec without fuzzy search and 100/sec with fuzzy search will be good targets to aim for.
It will be nice if I can put up a web accessible interface for JGeocoder. I am not looking to make money off this project so I can't really afford any hosting fees. Luckily google has some free hosting solutions thru its app engine service. I really want to port this project to python so that I can host it on google.
There are a few challenges about this:
http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/annc/20080527_google_io.html