Question

Nearest location finder by post/zipcode in php

Asked by: reedy2k

I have a requirement to produce a website that includes a "find my nearest supplier" feature

I have found documentation online how to do this in php based on a UK postcode and comparing it to other UK based postcodes, but we need to have this feature available for anyone in the World e.g.

Someone in Germany might want to find their nearest supplier
Someone in Australia might want to find their nearest supplier

This is obviously more complicated. It all needs to query the same master database containing all the records around the world, but we need to be able to compare zipcodes in one format with that in another format as each country has its own way of displaying zipcodes.

Any thoughts on how to proceed would be appreciated.

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Asked On
2008-04-07 at 08:30:28ID23301666
Tags

php/MySQL

Topics

PHP and Databases

,

WebApplications

,

PHP Scripting Language

Participating Experts
3
Points
300
Comments
6

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Answers

 

by: Ray_PaseurPosted on 2008-04-07 at 11:42:41ID: 21299524

You're embarking on a big undertaking, one that will get you a masters degree if you do it right.  You might want to start your research here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_postcodes - look in the "See also" for some good references.  Good luck, ~Ray

 

by: nacker2000Posted on 2008-04-07 at 15:47:31ID: 21301197

Yeah this will take some doing. I've only ever done it for UK postcodes. This site has a great example and a database of postcodes:

http://www.pjenkins.co.uk/blog/index.php/2007/04/04/uk_post_code_distance_calculation/

If you google postcode databases you will find a few companies that provide update databases that you can use, for a price of course...

There's no quick and easy way to do this, the first part it getting your databases for the countries you want, then you need to find out how the codes correspond to coordinates. Unfortunately I doubt anyone will be posting the php code that will do this for you, it's just a case of tackling each country at a time. Good Luck!

 

by: logudotcomPosted on 2008-04-14 at 10:29:39ID: 21351864

 

by: Ray_PaseurPosted on 2008-11-30 at 06:14:49ID: 23063214

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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