ArcMap

About geocoding a table of addresses

Many organizations manage records of information containing locational coordinates, place-names, or addresses of customers, businesses, patients, or homeowners in databases. Converting the records into features that contain the location and spatial geometry can be done by matching the table of addresses in ArcMap, in ArcCatalog, or with a geoprocessing tool. When you geocode a table of addresses, you use a locator to create point features that represent the locations of the addresses.

Geocoding a table of addresses

After a table of addresses is geocoded, the output feature class contains a copy of the address fields from the address table. One purpose of carrying over the address fields is rematching. The names of this set of address fields are prefixed with ARC_. When an address is modified during rematching, the new address is saved in these fields.

Alternatively, a relationship class between the input address table and output feature class can be created so that edits to the addresses in the input address table are automatically updated in the output feature class. This option is supported only if the input address table and output feature class are in the same geodatabase workspace.

The other fields created in the output feature class for the geocoding results when using the Esri World Geocoder or locators created with the General and US Address style templates are as follows:

  • Loc_name—The name of the participating locator used for matching the address. This field is available only if the locator that is used for matching the table is a composite locator (default).
  • Status—A code indicating whether the address was matched (default). This attribute has a value of one of the following:
    • M—Matched. The address is matched.
    • U—Unmatched. The address is not matched.
    • T—Tied. The address has more than one candidate with the same best match score but at different locations.
  • Score—The match score of the candidate to which the address was matched. The score can be in a range of 0 to 100, where 100 indicates that the candidate is a perfect match (default).
  • Match_type—A code showing how an address was matched. You can group the results based on this attribute to show how the addresses were matched or use the grouping to select records for rematching (default). The codes are as follows:
    • A—Automatically matched or rematched.
    • M—Manually matched or unmatched. If the geocoded feature class is rematched using the Interactive Rematch dialog box, the field may have the code M when you manually match or unmatch using the Match or Unmatch button.
    • PP—Pick by Point. The address was matched to the click point using the Pick Address from Map tool in the Interactive Rematch dialog box in ArcMap.
    • PA—Pick by Address. The address was matched to the closest address with the Pick Address from Map tool in the Interactive Rematch dialog box.
  • Match_addr—The address where the matched location actually resides based on the information of the matched candidate. For example, an input address of 123 Main St N is matched to a candidate with the suffix direction NW and all other components matched correctly (default). The Match_addr field will contain 123 Main St NW as the actual address that was matched.
  • Addr_type—The type of address that was geocoded. This attribute indicates to what kind of feature the address was matched. You can study the accuracy of the matched addresses and pattern of the matches based on the values (default). This attribute can have the following values:
    • SubAddress— A subset of a PointAddress that represents a house or building subaddress location, such as an apartment unit, floor, or individual building within a complex. The UnitName, UnitType, LevelName, LevelType, BldgName, and BldgType field values help to distinguish subaddresses that may be associated with the same PointAddress. Reference data consists of point features with associated house number, street name, and subaddress elements, along with administrative divisions and optional postal code, for example, 3836 Emerald Ave, Suite C, La Verne, CA, 91750. It is a precise location of the address.
    • PointAddress—A street address based on points that represent house and building locations. Typically, this is the most spatially accurate match level. Reference data contains address points with associated house numbers and street names, along with administrative divisions and optional postal code. The X and Y and geometry output values for a PointAddress match represent the street entry location for the address; this is the location used for routing operations. The DisplayX and DisplayY values represent the rooftop, or actual location of the address, for example, 783 Rolling Meadows Ln, Rickman, TN 38580.
    • BuildingName—A building name, such as CN Tower.
    • StreetAddres—A street address, such as 320 Madison St, that represents an interpolated location along a street given the house number within an address range.
    • StreetInt—A street address consisting of a street intersection along with city and optional state and postal code information. This is derived from StreetAddress reference data, for example, Redlands Blvd & New York St, Redlands, CA, 92373.
    • StreetName—The street name only, such as Orchard Road. The street name feature may be a feature of many street segments chained together based on the name. The geocoded location is usually placed on the middle of the street feature.
    • Admin—A high level administrative area for a country, such as a state or province.
    • State—A high level administrative area for a country, such as a state or province.
    • DepAdmin—A secondary administrative area, such as a county within a state.
    • SubAdmin—A local administrative area for a country, such as a city or municipality.
    • City—A local administrative area for a country, such as a city or municipality.
    • Locality—A place-name representing a populated place such as a city or neighborhood. This is typically the smallest administrative division within a country.
    • PostalLoc—A city or locality representing a postal administrative area.
    • PostalExt—A full postal code including its extension, such as a ZIP+4 code (91765-4383).
    • Postal—A basic postal code, such as 60610.
    • POI—A point of interest or landmark.
    • Zone—A city block or a subdivision within a locality, such as sub-block (gaiku chiban) in Japan. Only used in Japan at this time.
    • SingleField—Any unique feature represented in a feature class, such as place-names, points of interest, tax parcels, census tracts, meters, or alphanumeric strings used to identify locations, such as N1N115.
    • Coordinates—Geographic x,y coordinate pair, such as -84.392 32.722.
    • LatLong—An x,y coordinate pair. The LatLong addr_type is returned when an x,y coordinate pair, such as 117.155579,32.703761, is the search input.
    • SpatialOperator—The location that contains an offset distance from the found address, for example, 30 yards south from 342 Main St.
    • MGRS—A Military Grid Reference System (MGRS) location, such as 46VFM5319397841.
    • RoadKM—A distance marker. Only used in Puerto Rico at this time.
  • Type—The feature type for results returned by a search. Returned by the WorldGazetteer locator for findAddressCandidates requests. As an example, for Starbucks, Type = "Coffee Shop".
  • PlaceName—The formal name of a geocode match candidate. This is only returned by the WorldGazetteer locator for findAddressCandidates requests, for example, "Paris" or "Starbucks".
  • Place_addr—The full street address of a place, including street, city, and region. This is only returned by the WorldGazetteer locator for POI searches.
  • Phone—The primary phone number of a place. Returned by the WorldGazetteer locator for findAddressCandidates requests. For other searches, such as address, intersection, and postal code, the field is empty, for example, Knott's Berry Farm, Phone = "(714)220-5200".
  • URL—The URL of the primary website for a place. Returned by the WorldGazetteer locator for findAddressCandidates requests.
  • Rank—A numerical text value indicating the importance of a result relative to other results with the same name. For example, there are cities in France and Texas named Paris. Paris, France, has a greater population than Paris, Texas, so it has a higher rank. Rank is used to sort results for ambiguous queries such as "Lincoln", where no additional information (state) is available. This value is returned for DepAdmin, SubAdmin , City,Locality, and POI addr_type matches only (default).
  • AddBldg—The name of a building, for example, Empire State Building.
  • AddNum—The alphanumeric value that represents the portion of an address typically known as a house number or building number, for example, in the address "380 New York Street", AddNum = 380. This value is returned for PointAddress and StreetAddress Addr_type matches only (default).
  • AddNumFrom—A value representing the beginning number of a street address range. It is relative to direction of feature digitization and is not always the smallest number in the range. This value is provided for StreetAddress Addr_type results (default).
  • AddNumTo—A value representing the ending number of a street address range. It is relative to direction of feature digitization and is not always the largest number in the range. This value is provided for StreetAddress Addr_type results (default).
  • Side—The side of the street the address was matched to. This field is available if the address locator that was used to match the table contains address information for both sides of the street (default). The value of this attribute can be the following:
    • L—The address is matched to the left side of the street.
    • R—The address is matched to the right side of the street.
    • No value—The address is not matched, or the locator could not determine the side of the street.
  • StPreDir—An address element defining the direction of a street and occurs before the primary street name, for example, "North" in "North Main Street" (default).
  • StPreType—An address element defining the leading type of a street, for example, the Spanish term "Avenida" in Avenida Central or the French term "Rue"in Rue Lapin (default).
  • StName—An address element defining the primary name of a street, for example, "Main" in North Main Street (default).
  • StType—An address element defining the trailing type of a street, for example, "Street" in Main Street (default).
  • StDir—An address element defining the direction of a street, which occurs after the primary street name, for example, "North" in "Main Street North" (default).
  • StAddr—The street address of a place without a zone, such as city or state (default).
  • Nbrhd—The smallest administrative area for a country, typically a neighborhood or other subsection of a city (default).
  • City—The next smallest administrative area for a country, typically a city or municipality (default).
  • Subregion—A secondary administrative area for a country, typically a county or region (default).
  • County—A secondary administrative area for a country, such as a county within a state (default).
  • Region—The largest administrative area for a country, typically a state or province (default).
  • State—The largest administrative area for a country, such as a state or province (default).
  • StateAbbr—The abbreviation for a high level administrative area for a country, such as a state or province (default).
  • Postal—An alphanumeric address element defining the primary postal code, for example, "V7M 2B4" for a Canadian postal code and "92374" for a USA postal code (default).
  • Zip—An alphanumeric address element defining the primary postal code, for example, "V7M 2B4" for a Canadian postal code and "92374" for a USA postal code (default).
  • PostalExt—An alphanumeric address element defining the postal code extension, for example, "8100" in USA postal code 92373-8110 (default).
  • Zip4—An alphanumeric address element defining the postal code extension, for example, "8100" in USA postal code 92373-8110 (default).
  • Zip4Low—An alphanumeric value representing the beginning number of a postal code extension range. This value is provided for PostalExt Addr_type results (default).
  • Zip4High—An alphanumeric value representing the ending number of a postal code extension range. This value is provided for PostalExt Addr_type results (default).
  • Country—A 3-digit ISO 3166-1 code for a country, for example, United States of America = "USA" (default).
  • LangCode—A 3-digit MARC language code, representing the language of the address, for example, "ENG" = English (default). See a list of codes.
  • Distance—The physical distance in meters from a candidate to a specified location (default). The Distance output value is calculated for each candidate when the Location input parameter is passed in a request using the findAddressCandidates REST operation.
  • DisplayX—The display x-coordinate of an address returned in the spatial reference of the locator. For PointAddress locators, this value represents the actual location of the address (that is, the building or parcel centroid). It differs from the x-value, which is derived from a location along the street or the street entry for an address. For all other locators, this value is equal to the x-value (default).
  • DisplayY—The display y-coordinate of an address returned in the spatial reference of the locator. For PointAddress locators, this value represents the actual location of the address (that is, the building or parcel centroid). It differs from the y-value, which is derived from a location along the street or the street entry for an address. For all other locators, this value is equal to the y-value (default).
  • Xmin—The minimum x-coordinate for the display extent of a feature returned by the locator. The Xmin, Xmax, Ymin, and Ymax values can be combined to set the map extent for displaying a geocode result. The extent coordinates use the spatial reference of the locator (default).
  • Xmax—The maximum x-coordinate for the display extent of a feature returned by the locator. The Xmin, Xmax, Ymin, and Ymax values can be combined to set the map extent for displaying a geocode result. The extent coordinates use the spatial reference of the locator (default).
  • Ymin—The minimum y-coordinate for the display extent of a feature returned by the locator. The Xmin, Xmax, Ymin, and Ymax values can be combined to set the map extent for displaying a geocode result. The extent coordinates use the spatial reference of the locator (default).
  • Ymax—The maximum y-coordinate for the display extent of a feature returned by the locator. The Xmin, Xmax, Ymin, and Ymax values can be combined to set the map extent for displaying a geocode result. The extent coordinates use the spatial reference of the locator (default).

The following are optional fields if the Output Fields options were checked in the address locator's properties during geocoding:

  • Pct_along—For address locators that use feature classes with polyline geometry as reference data, Pct_along (percent along) specifies where the matched address is located along the reference feature as a percentage of the feature's total length. The percentage is measured along the digitized direction of the line feature.
  • Ref_ID—The reference ID of the matched feature.
  • StreetID—StreetID can be used to associate a Single House feature to a specific street segment. There are situations where the rooftop location of a PointAddress match may be closer to another street segment that it is not associated with or would not be correct when routing to it.
  • Stan_addr—The standardized address.
  • X—The x-coordinate of the matched address in spatial reference of the locator (default).
  • Y—The y-coordinate of the matched address in spatial reference of the locator (default).

Learn more about geocoding a table of addresses in ArcMap

Learn more about geocoding a table of addresses using a geoprocessing tool

Learn more about geocoding a table of addresses using ArcGIS Online geocode service

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