Geocode error

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February 8th, 2013, 10:52 PM

taeBaby

Registered User

Join Date: Jan 2013

Posts: 27

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Geocode help!

So I'm using the Google Geocoding API to obtain the ZIP code when given an address such as 'Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, AZ' and it returns the zip code of the address as a string '86001'.

I finally got it to print out the json output, but I'm not sure how to go about getting just the zip code and returning only that and nothing else.

Here's my code:

Code:

def get_zipcode(address):
  zipcode = ''
  # +++your code here+++
  url="http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?address=" + urllib.quote(address.encode('utf-8')) + "&sensor=false"
  response = urllib2.urlopen(url).read()
  print response

Or would it be easier to go the xml path?
Here's my code for that:

Code:

def get_zipcode(address):
  zipcode = ''
  # +++your code here+++
  url="http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/xml?address=" + urllib.quote(address.encode('utf-8')) + "&sensor=false"
  response = urllib2.urlopen(url).read()
  tree = ET.parse(response)??
  root = tree.getroot()??
  return root

For the xml code, it's kind of weird b/c I get an error (IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory) but it still returns the xml output...

If someone could show me how to go about it either way or both, I would really appreciate it

February 9th, 2013, 09:45 AM

Dietrich

Contributing User

Join Date: Feb 2005

Posts: 483

Time spent in forums: 3 Days 22 h 51 m 26 sec
Reputation Power: 63

This should give you a hint ...

Code:

''' jason_decode2dict1.py
extracting data from a json object
tested with Python273
'''

import urllib
import urllib2
import json

address = "Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, AZ"
url1 = "http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?address="
url2 = url1 + urllib.quote(address.encode('utf-8')) + "&sensor=false"

# this will be a json string object
response = urllib2.urlopen(url2).read()

print(type(response))  # <type 'str'> 

# decode json string object to Python dictionary object
jdecode = json.JSONDecoder()
response2 = jdecode.decode(response)

print(type(response2))  # <type 'dict'> 

# fish out the address
address = response2['results'][0]['formatted_address']
print(address)

''' result ...
Lowell Observatory, 1400 West Mars Hill Road, Flagstaff, AZ 86001, USA
'''

# now fish out the zipcode
print('-'*40)
address_list = address.split(',')
print(address_list)
print(address_list[-2])
print(address_list[-2].split())
# finally ...
zipcode = address_list[-2].split()[1]
print(zipcode)

''' result ...
[u'Lowell Observatory', u' 1400 West Mars Hill Road', u' Flagstaff', u' AZ 86001', u' USA']
 AZ 86001
[u'AZ', u'86001']
86001
'''

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Last edited by Dietrich : February 9th, 2013 at 05:02 PM.

February 9th, 2013, 02:42 PM

taeBaby

Registered User

Join Date: Jan 2013

Posts: 27

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I'm getting an error on the jdecode part for some reason.
ValueError: No JSON object could be decoded.

Also, after looking through the json code and whatnot, I think xml output might be easier for me? At least to grasp better - so I tried it out that way, and got it to print out what I want.

Thanks!

February 9th, 2013, 04:57 PM

Dietrich

Contributing User

Join Date: Feb 2005

Posts: 483

Time spent in forums: 3 Days 22 h 51 m 26 sec
Reputation Power: 63

Looks like xml is a little easier in your case ...

Code:

''' xml_get_data2.py
extracting data from a xml object
tested with Python273
'''

import urllib
import urllib2
import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET

#address = "Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, AZ"
address = "Disneyland, Anaheim, CA"
url1 = "http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/xml?address="
url2 = url1 + urllib.quote(address.encode('utf-8')) + "&sensor=false"

# this will be a xml string object
xml_response = urllib2.urlopen(url2).read()

root = ET.fromstring(xml_response)
comp_list = [code for code in root.findall(".//address_component") \
     if code.findtext('type') == 'postal_code']
zipcode = [element.find('long_name').text for element in comp_list]

print(zipcode)
print(zipcode[0])

February 9th, 2013, 05:04 PM

taeBaby

Registered User

Join Date: Jan 2013

Posts: 27

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Yep! Thanks for all your help Dietrich!

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