There comes a time when it is important for a business to Geo Code address / customers.. and nothing is better than using Google API to accomplish this task.
Sample problem: Create a small application using C# that uses Google API to geo code a given address / location. The C# application should show user latitude, longitude and the accuracy of the lat / long.
Solution: We can use Google’s API to geo code a given address, Google API will give us back three items we need. Lat, Long and the accuracy. The API will give us back 8 for very good match and down to 2 for poor or bad match.
Implementation: I assume you know how to program in C#, therefore I’m only going to list CodeBehind version of the application.
//include below system.Net class if its not already included
using System.Net;
//you might need a google api key if you don’t already have one
// http://code.google.com/apis/maps/signup.html
//API key fro http://YourDomain.com
string strKey = "ABQIAAAA………………PUT YOUR KEY HERE
//Address
string strAddress = "1 Main St, New York, NY 10001";
//Create a path string with address and api key
string sPath = "http://maps.google.com/maps/geo?q=" + strAddress + "&output=csv&key=" + strKey;
//Using WebClient class to download the CSV
//WebClient is part of System.Net class
WebClient client = new WebClient();
//Downloading CSV with Latitute and Longitute
//.DownloadString method download CSV file from browser
string[] eResult = client.DownloadString(sPath).ToString().Split(',');
//As you can see, I’m spliting the string into array
//I’m not using element 0 as it keeps status code if address if found, //but you can if you want too.
//Once the result / response is in string array eResult, we can access //it by calling its GetValue method and pass the 0 based index.
lbl1.Text = eResult.GetValue(1).ToString();
lbl2.Text = eResult.GetValue(2).ToString();
lbl3.Text = eResult.GetValue(3).ToString();
That’s all, its simple as that!!
