Geocode addresses

What is address geocoding?

Address geocoding, also known as forward geocoding, is the process of converting text for an address to a complete address with a location. For example, you can convert 1 Bridge St, Sydney, Australia to 1 Bridge St, Sydney, New South Wales, 2000.

You can use address search to:

• Geocode address text to a complete address.
• Find the location of an address.
• Provide a list of address candidates for an incomplete address.

How address geocoding works

You can geocode an address by making an HTTPS request to the geocoding service findAddressCandidates operation or by using client APIs. Specify the address, output data fields, and optionally, additional parameters to refine the search.

The more complete you can make the input address, the more likely the geocoding service will find an exact match. For example, "1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, District of Columbia, 20500".

To refine the search, you can provide additional parameters such as the location, search extent, country code, city, and neighborhood.

The geocoding service parses the address and uses all of the parameters to return a set of address candidates. Each candidate contains a full address, location, attributes, and a score of how well it matched. By default the address, score, and location are returned, but to return all of the data fields available, you can set the outFields parameter to *****.

URL request

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https://geocode-api.arcgis.com/arcgis/rest/services/World/GeocodeServer/findAddressCandidates?address={searchText}&outFields={fieldList}&f=json&token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>

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https://geocode.arcgis.com/arcgis/rest/services/World/GeocodeServer/findAddressCandidates?address={searchText}&outFields={fieldList}&f=json&token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>

Required parameters

Key parameters

Additional parameters: Refine the search by using parameters such as location, searchExtent, neighborhood, city, and countryCode. Use langCode to return results in a specific language.

Storage parameter

If you need to store or persist the geocoding service results in any way, you are required to use the forStorage parameter.

Code examples

Geocode an address

This example illustrates how to geocode address text. Most APIs provide a LocatorTask to access the service.

Steps

1. Reference the geocoding service.

2. Set the address.

3. Set the token to your API key.

The response is a set of address candidates with a full address, location, and score.

APIs

ArcGIS Maps SDK for JavaScriptArcGIS Maps SDK for JavaScriptArcGIS Maps SDK for .NETArcGIS Maps SDK for KotlinArcGIS Maps SDK for SwiftArcGIS Maps SDK for JavaArcGIS Maps SDK for QtArcGIS API for PythonArcGIS REST JSEsri LeafletMapLibre GL JSOpenLayersCesiumJS

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      const geocodingServiceUrl = "https://geocode-api.arcgis.com/arcgis/rest/services/World/GeocodeServer";

      const params = {
        address: {
          "address": "1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, DC"
        }
      }

      locator.addressToLocations(geocodingServiceUrl, params).then((results) => {
        showResult(results);
      });

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Go to tutorial

REST API

RequestResponse

cURLcURLHTTP

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curl https://geocode-api.arcgis.com/arcgis/rest/services/World/GeocodeServer/findAddressCandidates \
-d 'f=pjson' \
-d 'address=1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, DC' \
-d 'token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>'

Run in Postman

Tutorials

Search for an address

Convert an address or place to a location with the geocoding service.

JavaScript Maps SDKKotlin Maps SDKSwift Maps SDK.NET Maps SDKJava Maps SDKQt Maps SDKEsri LeafletMapLibre GL JSOpenLayersCesiumJSPython APIREST JSREST API