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On many government sites in Canada, they have a feature where they can know your address only by the postal code and the street name.

When you search a postal code on google map, the area covered by this postal code is covered.

But looking at the google map API, I can't find a way to get a complete address based only on the postal code and the civic number.

Kara
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FMaz008
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1 Answers1

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I'm afraid there is no such feature in the Google Geocoding API.

If you search for a (full precision) postal code in Canada or UK, you can tell the result is pretty precise down to one building (maybe a few) by the small size of the Bounds field in the result. Examples (red box is Bounds):

M6G 1C5 (Canada) http://gmaps-samples-v3.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/geocoder/v3-geocoder-tool.html#q%3DM6G%201C5

SW1V 4EB (UK) http://gmaps-samples-v3.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/geocoder/v3-geocoder-tool.html#q%3DSW1V%204EB

The result you get back is the postal code, the API won't "translate" it into a street address (e.g. 750 College St, Toronto, ON M6G 1C5). If you think this would work great in the whole country and possibly others (e.g. UK, not sure of others) then please consider filing a Feature Request for the Geocoding API (and posting the issue number here :)

http://code.google.com/p/gmaps-api-issues/issues/entry?template=Geocoding%20API%20-%20Feature%20Request

HTH

miguev
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  • Thank for confirming that this is impossible. Actually, only CanadaPost seems to be able to do it for Canada. But sometime, a postal code may be the same for many streets, so it can't be accurate, but it can still be useful if the interface handle that exception. Just opened http://code.google.com/p/gmaps-api-issues/issues/detail?id=3879&thanks=3879&ts=1327690402 . – FMaz008 Jan 27 '12 at 18:51
  • I just checked the FR and it looks like it could do with a lot more context, for those unfamiliar with Canada Post, or at least a link to this thread ;) – miguev Jan 27 '12 at 20:10