CODEWITHSUNDEEP
google-mapsgoogle-geocoding-apizipcode
Nikhil
Nikhil

Reputation: 604

google map geocoding api returns result for invalid zip code

Google geocoding api returns result for these zip codes: "0", "00", "000" ,"00000"

After hitting this api - https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?address=00000&key=mysecretkey it returns "formatted_address" : "6009 Wayzata Blvd Suite #108, St Louis Park, MN 55416, USA"

are these valid zip codes? Ideally it should not return result.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 1368

Answers (1)

xomena
xomena

Reputation: 32100

There are a couple of things you should be aware of:

  • When you send address=00000 parameter in Geocoding API request, it will search match in formatted address or in place name. Service won't match only postal code in this case.

  • Google might have bad data in their database that can lead to unexpected results.

In your example it seems to be bad data in Google database.

Let's have a look at the response for your request

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?address=00000&key=YOUR_API_KEY

as you can see in the response, the place ID is "ChIJgyA2iZU0s1IReyHBw0yPjZg". Now check the output of place details request for this place ID

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/details/json?placeid=ChIJgyA2iZU0s1IReyHBw0yPjZg&key=YOUR_API_KEY

The response will contain the following 

{
    ....
    id: "3fff72184719b7835304f285f40e677e9914933e",
    international_phone_number: "+1 763-300-8722",
    name: "00000",
    place_id: "ChIJgyA2iZU0s1IReyHBw0yPjZg",
    formatted_address: "6009 Wayzata Blvd Suite #108, St Louis Park, MN 55416, USA",
    types: [
        "lodging",
        "point_of_interest",
        "establishment"
    ],
    .....
}

Note that this business has name "00000" in Google database, so Geocoding API is working as intended, but obviously there is a data issue here.

You can see the place and report bad data to Google using this link

https://maps.google.com/?cid=10992599825345749371

I hope this helps!

Upvotes: 2

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