[thelist] searching using postal codes in the USA

Michal Migurski mike at teczno.com
Thu Aug 19 10:18:43 CDT 2004


> > "How does a website provide search information in the USA using postal
> > code and within certain miles of where a person doing the search is
> > living ?"
>
> You need a database of all the zip codes in the USA with a corresponding
> Lat/Long value for each one. To calculate the distance between two
> zipcodes, you use a standard formula for calculating distance over the
> surface of a sphere. This can be googled up easily. Thats pretty much
> it. You can also get a database of all cities/town in the US with zip
> codes so you can do it by locality name rather than zip.

FYI, this database was only 40 bucks, data in a CSV file for maximum
flexibility, no strings attached because it's based on gov't data:

	http://www.zipwise.com/database-more-info.php

You can use the data to create a relational database with city, state,
county and zip code tables.

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