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8-State Regional
Pricing: $1,500
Single State Pricing: $800
Update Pricing: 50% of the original price
What Is Geocoding?
Geocoding is the process of
converting geographic information into latitude/longitude coordinate
pairs. For example, 123 Main Street, in Anytown, USA, is geographic
information. But that information must be transformed into numeric
values (“coordinates”) before the address can be rendered on a map.
Geocoding parses the address components, and matches them to a
database of coordinate information. These coordinates are then
passed to the software, which displays the location.
As a mapping application, Scan/US
for Windows uses a “virtual” landscape to display different
geographic features and locations. Scan/US composes this landscape
from a combination of polygons, lines & points. Each polygon, line
and point is defined by a sequence of numeric values, the
“coordinates” or “coordinate pairs.”
Each coordinate consists of 2
numeric values that represent distance from the Equator (the
“Latitude”) and the Prime Meridian (the “Longitude”). When a single
coordinate pair is displayed on the landscape, Scan/US draws a
“point,” indicating a fixed location. Scan/US can also connect a
series of coordinates sequentially to form lines. And finally,
coordinates linked sequentially, including a joining of the last
coordinate pair and the initial coordinate pair, form “polygons,” or
“enclosed objects.”
Do you need a Geocoder?
If you have
Scan/US, you already have a geocoder! Each time you use the “Find
Address”, “Site Express”, or “Go To...” utilities, you use some form
of the Scan/US Geocoder. The obvious limitation is that you must
enter each address individually.
When it is impractical to enter
large numbers of addresses by hand, you should consider a “batch”
geocoding option. Batch geocoding allows you to load a database of
addresses, process the database in an unattended mode, and append
latitude/longitude coordinates to each record as additional data.
Then all addresses can be displayed (up to 16,000 at a time).
And with Scan/US Site Factory, you
can run reports, directly from your address files, in an unattended
batch operation! Or select specific demographic variables, and
produce a spreadsheet database with all of your addresses organized
for easy ranking and sorting on those variables that matter most to
your analysis!
Address Standardization.
Scan/US Geocoder will process your file (with an unlimited number of
addresses anywhere in the U.S.) standardizing addresses to U.S.
postal regulations, and assign Latitude and Longitude coordinates
and geographic IDs, all in a single pass.
Without coordinates, your addresses
cannot be displayed as points on a map! Scan/US Geocoder assigns
coordinates with precision, based on the exact street address or a
ZIP+4 centroid—precise enough to show your locations on the correct
side of the street!
Why is Scan/US Geocoder the most
accurate? Scan/US Geocoder references both the U.S. Census Bureau’s
2000 TIGER street database and a 55 million record ZIP+4 database to
look up your addresses and assign coordinates to them. When a
matching address is found in the TIGER street database, its Lat/Long
coordinate is assigned to your address. When a match is not found,
Scan/US Geocoder assigns a coordinate from the ZIP+4 database, or as
a last resort, a 5-digit ZIP centroid.
You get the best match rates from
Scan/US Geocoder because the addresses in its street database have
been standardized to U.S. Postal Service’s guidelines. During
processing, your addresses are also standardized to those same
guidelines—minimizing the effect of incorrect or incomplete
addresses and misspellings—to ensure that the best matching
addresses are found in the reference databases.
Related Content:
Take a tour of the Batch Geocoder
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