Getting city from geocode results Google Maps Api

Question

I am using the Google Maps API (https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/xml) to geocode places and addresses. However, the results seem inconsistent. The administrative_area_level_2 and locality OR the locality and sublocality_level_1 seem to overlap. But, depending on the address, the overlap is different. One of the things I need to do is determine the city. The documentation states that the locality is the equivalent of a city depending on the country.

If I geocode "Noord-Holland, Nederland" which is a province I get:

country:Nederland
administrative_area_level_1: Noord-Holland

I can understand. All seems well...

If I geocode "Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Nederland" I get the following result:

country:Nederland
administrative_area_level_1: Noord-Holland
administrative_area_level_2:Amsterdam
locality:Amsterdam

Here I start not understanding the result. Why is Amsterdam listed as an administrative_area_level_2 as well as a locality? Maybe there is a higher governamental body with the same name? But ok, Amsterdam is the locality, thus the city. Which is correct.

If I geocode "Anton de Komplein 150, 1102 CW Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Nederland" I get the following results:

country:Nederland
administrative_area_level_1:Noord-Holland
administrative_area_level_2:Amsterdam
locality:Amsterdam-Zuidoost
sublocality_level_1:Amsterdam-Zuidoost

Now I really don't understand.

Here is Amsterdam-Zuidoost mentioned twice
Why is the locality here "Amsterdam-Zuidoost"? It is not the city... I would have assumed that "Amsterdam" would be the locality and "Amsterdam-Zuidoost" the sublocality_level_1.

Can someone explain how i should interpretate the results?

The documentation suggests that the results and the way they are formatted may vary depending on the country (and maybe other factors too). If you are going to use this only for the Netherlands, then maybe admin_area_level_2 is a consistent way of getting the locality? If not, then I'd suggest you to have a look at other APIs. — MrUpsidown
I am afraid, this is not the case. In many cases there is no administrative_area_level_2 and sometimes there is an administrative_area_level_2 that differs from the locality. — Peter de Bruijn

xomena xomena · Accepted Answer · 2017-12-18T09:59:39

I've had a look at your examples and I believe these are data issues that should be reported to Google.

Let's explain my findings:

The request for 'Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Nederland'

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?address=Amsterdam%2C%20Noord-Holland%2C%20Nederland&key=MY_API_KEY

returns the following address components for me

"address_components":[
    {
      "long_name":"Amsterdam",
      "short_name":"Amsterdam",
      "types":[
        "locality","political"
      ]
    },
    {
      "long_name":"Government of Amsterdam",
      "short_name":"Government of Amsterdam",
      "types":[
        "administrative_area_level_2","political"
      ]
    },
    {
      "long_name":"North Holland",
      "short_name":"NH",
      "types":[
        "administrative_area_level_1","political"
      ]
    },
    {
      "long_name":"Netherlands",
      "short_name":"NL",
      "types":[
        "country","political"
      ]
    }
  ]

Note that administrative_area_level_2 has a name 'Government of Amsterdam'. I understand you might be using the Dutch language to get results

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?address=Amsterdam%2C%20Noord-Holland%2C%20Nederland&language=nl&key=MY_API_KEY

In this case I have:

{
    "long_name":"Amsterdam",
    "short_name":"Amsterdam",
    "types":[
      "locality","political"
    ]
},
{
    "long_name":"Amsterdam",
    "short_name":"Amsterdam",
    "types":[
      "administrative_area_level_2","political"
    ]
}

So at this point it looks like the Dutch version is not translated correctly, we have 'Government of Amsterdam' in English and 'Amsterdam' in Dutch. This is a data issue. By the way you can see the administrative area level 2 here:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Government+of+Amsterdam,+Amsterdam,+Netherlands/@52.3544136,4.7585038,11z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x47c63fb5949a7755:0xe4f20c148755745!8m2!3d52.3666969!4d4.8945398

The second example is a bit more complicated.

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?address=Anton%20de%20Komplein%20150%2C%201102%20CW%20Amsterdam%2C%20Noord-Holland%2C%20Nederland&key=MY_API_KEY

First of all you should be aware that for street address level searches you will get address components and formatted address in local language as described in the localization of street addresses article. So doesn't matter what language we specify English or Dutch we will see the Amsterdam as the administrative area level 2 and this is exactly the same data issue that we faced in the first example, it should be translated to 'Regering van Amsterdam' on Google side.

Referring to the locality component. It's really weird that Amsterdam-Zuidoost is defined as locality in Google database. I can see it as shown in the screenshot and it looks like a sublocality:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Amsterdam-Zuidoost,+Netherlands/@52.2569773,4.995519,12z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x47c60c069aab8879:0x249b64218cad1744!8m2!3d52.3079989!4d4.9715451

However if you check this feature in the Geocoder tool, it clearly states that this is a locality feature:

https://google-developers.appspot.com/maps/documentation/utils/geocoder/#place_id%3DChIJeYirmgYMxkcRRBetjCFkmyQ

Note the pace ID is ChIJeYirmgYMxkcRRBetjCFkmyQ. I believe this also might be a data issue on Google side.

I would suggest sending a feedback to Google data team following the Google Maps help center:

https://support.google.com/maps/answer/3094045?hl=en&ref_topic=3093612

I hope my answer clarifies your doubts!

Getting city from geocode results Google Maps Api

1 Answers