[postgis-users] Your opinion on geocoding ?

[Sufficool, Stanley]

I have been using a PL/pgSQL solution for geocoding to line segments. It
does no address parsing, but does the even/odd offset from line segments
after matching which was the most important factor for my application.

See attached. Please provide any input on what might be improved.


> -----Original Message-----
> From: postgis-users-bounces at postgis.refractions.net 
> [mailto:postgis-users-bounces at postgis.refractions.net] On 
> Behalf Of Stephen Woodbridge
> Sent: Tuesday, October 21, 2008 12:56 PM
> To: autisi at yahoo.com; PostGIS Users Discussion
> Subject: Re: [postgis-users] Your opinion on geocoding ?
> 
> 
> Smith Roman wrote:
> >   Hi,
> > 
> > Thanks, for your replies. I will like to ask for your own opinion as
> > regarding geocoding. Considering the limitations of my data. Which 
> 
> I'm not sure about what the limitation on your data are.
> Do you have house number ranges? Then you can use the method 
> that Regina 
> already suggested.
> 
> If you do not have house number ranges then you have a bigger 
> problem as 
> roads with the same name might exist in adjacent towns, think 
> Main St. 
> Or a road might be multiple segments with the same name, but 
> divided at 
> the intersecting streets, think of 6th Ave and all its cross streets.
> 
> > geocoding method do you think will be appropriate ? If possible, if 
> > you
> > have links to papers on geocoding i will be grateful. Or do u think 
> > geocoding the street names using the center point of the 
> linestrings is 
> > the most appropriate method ?
> 
> To some extent, your geocoding methodology depends on two factors:
> 
> 1) the quality and detail in the source data
> 2) what you want to do with the results like zoom a map or generate a 
> route to a house, etc.
> 
> Some other things you might want to consider are how to handle common 
> abbreviation like Street, St., St, Avenue, Ave., Ave, Av., 
> Av, etc. The 
> USPS publishes a list of common and acceptable abbreviation.
> 
> You might also want to do some fuzzy search using something like 
> soundex, or other phonic keys for words. Also how to deal with simple 
> typographical error like "West wood" vs. "Westwood" or other common 
> spelling errors.
> 
> http://www.urisa.org/files/goldberg.pdf
> You might also want to read some of the articles listed in 
> their References.
> 
> Also notice on the bottom of this page: 
> http://postgis.refractions.net/download/
> a TIGER GEOCODER, there has been a lot of discussion on this 
> in the past 
> in the list archives.
> 
> Hope this helps,
>    -Stephen Woodbridge
>     http://imaptools.com/ 
> _______________________________________________
> postgis-users mailing list postgis-users at postgis.refractions.net
> http://postgis.refractions.net/mailman/listinfo/postgis-users
> 
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