What is an address locator?—ArcObjects 10.4 Help for Java

Summary

The address locator is the main tool for geocoding in ArcGIS. It is a dataset that contains information including address attributes, indexes, and queries for geocoding. An address locator contains a snapshot of the reference data that is used for geocoding. In the process of geocoding, the reference data is no longer needed after the locator is created.

In this topic

About address locators

Address locator types
Address locator styles
Additional information stored by address locators
What address locators do

About address locators

Locator objects create geometry for nonspatial descriptions of locations. An address locator is a particular type of locator that creates geometry for text descriptions representing addresses. This process is commonly called geocoding.

Address locator types

Address locators can be stored on disk or in a file, personal, or ArcSDE geodatabase. Address locators can also be used to create GeocodeServer objects that are served using ArcGIS Server. The following are the two main types of ESRIAddressLocator objects:

ESRIGen2AddressLocator objects—Use the ESRI geocoding engine introduced in ArcGIS 10.0. This address locator supports single line input for geocoding and is created using ArcGIS 10.0 address locator styles.
AGSAddressLocator objects—Are locators that represent GeocodeServer objects retrieved from ArcGIS Server.

Address locator styles

There are a number of different address locator styles. Choosing the right one requires knowing what type of reference data you have and in what format your addresses will be. For example, you can use the US Address - Dual Ranges address locator style for street centerline data containing left and right address ranges, directionals, street names, street types, and left and right Zones (city, state, and/or ZIP Code). If you want to geocode U.S. ZIP Code data, you can use the ZIP 5-Digit address locator style for creating a ZIP Code address locator based on a ZIP Code point reference feature class.

Additional information stored by address locators

An address locator also contains information on how an address is standardized, searching methods for possible matches, and what output information of a match is returned. You can redistribute address locators by copying and pasting the address locators onto a different workspace or network.

What address locators do

Address locators find candidates for addresses by geocoding tables of addresses and finding single addresses.

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Engine Developer Kit	Engine
ArcGIS for Desktop Basic	ArcGIS for Desktop Basic
ArcGIS for Desktop Standard	ArcGIS for Desktop Standard
ArcGIS for Desktop Advanced	ArcGIS for Desktop Advanced