Google Geocoder Lookup get postal code by country and city

Question

i'm currently using Google Geocoder API to determine location data for my web service. It's important for me to get the postal code for a given country and city, but it's look like that google is limiting the result.

Here's the API call:

http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?address=deutschland,+saarlouis&language=de&sensor=false

The result is like that:

{
   "results" : [
      {
         "address_components" : [
            {
               "long_name" : "Saarlouis",
               "short_name" : "Saarlouis",
               "types" : [ "locality", "political" ]
            },
            {
               "long_name" : "Landkreis Saarlouis",
               "short_name" : "Landkreis Saarlouis",
               "types" : [ "administrative_area_level_3", "political" ]
            },
            {
               "long_name" : "Saarland",
               "short_name" : "SL",
               "types" : [ "administrative_area_level_1", "political" ]
            },
            {
               "long_name" : "Deutschland",
               "short_name" : "DE",
               "types" : [ "country", "political" ]
            }
         ],
         "formatted_address" : "Saarlouis, Deutschland",
         "geometry" : {
            "bounds" : {
               "northeast" : {
                  "lat" : 49.36187570,
                  "lng" : 6.815549499999999
               },
               "southwest" : {
                  "lat" : 49.26046930,
                  "lng" : 6.67501510
               }
            },
            "location" : {
               "lat" : 49.31346060,
               "lng" : 6.752286499999999
            },
            "location_type" : "APPROXIMATE",
            "viewport" : {
               "northeast" : {
                  "lat" : 49.36187570,
                  "lng" : 6.815549499999999
               },
               "southwest" : {
                  "lat" : 49.26046930,
                  "lng" : 6.67501510
               }
            }
         },
         "types" : [ "locality", "political" ]
      }
   ],
   "status" : "OK"
}

Thx for help.

Regards

Answer 1

Geocoding does not give postcode. Goenames has a database for Germany. Other countries are also available.

Answer 2

The reason you don't get the postal code is the query is too broad. If you would add a street name to the query the result will contain a postal code. A solution to your problem if you don't have a street name or don't want to use it is to split the geocoding into two parts:

Step 1: Use the city to get the GPS coordinates

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?address=amsterdam

Step 2: Use the the GPS coordidates to get the postal code

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?latlng=52.3182742,4.7288558

(Note: Double of same question posted here, answered by MidnightMotion. Adding to make easier to lookup. https://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/33966/google-geocoder-lookup-get-postal-code-by-country-and-city)