Looking up hundreds of ZIP codes

[Reply]

@Space_Vegetable

A simpler option is to use Geocodio. You can upload a spreadsheet of addresses lacking zip codes, and it will add them, as well as latitude and longitude and lots of other info. It can handle data where all the address info is one big field, or when it’s split up into city, state, etc. It’s free for up to 2500 lookups a day.

I used it to add county names and census tract codes (the latter an extra-cost option) to 3500 addresses a few weeks ago, for a project where I needed to classify addresses by neighborhoods within a city. I paid $2.22 total. Highly recommended.

Much easier to use! It gave me different ZIP codes than the USPS did, though For example, Google and the USPS agree that the NYSE is 10005 and the Empire State Building is 10118, but Geocodio says both are 10004. I am not sure if that would actually make a difference in mailing.

[Johnny_L.A]

@Space_Vegetable

A simpler option is to use Geocodio.

I must have done something wrong. I have this:

0003402	[company name]    [secondary name]		PO BOX 31413	[secondary address]	BILLINGS	MT

It returned: Savannah, GA 31413

I think it may be that I don’t know how to define the fields. Like, it said 3. Address, when the primary address is in column 4.

[Johnny_L.A]

I replied to Geocodio’s email, and they said:

[T]his is indeed a bug in our end. It appears that we are interpreting the PO Box Number as a zip code. We will get that resolved.

In the meantime, I would recommend removing “PO BOX” entries from your list (keeping the city/state) as PO Boxes will be geocoded to the zip-code accuracy level either way.

Anyway… Reply’s script (thanks for the PMs, by the way!) got me about 2/3 of the ZIP codes. I looked up the rest on USPS and Google. One problem is that the member is giving us bad cities. Like, ‘Oh, it’s Alaska? Just put Anchorage.’ Or: ‘Where in Washington? Just put Tukwila.’ So Google Sheets and Geocodio won’t be any help there. But now that I’ve got most of the ZIP codes (there were about a dozen I couldn’t find myself), I have a program that looks at previous data and gets the address information from there if the account numbers match. I shouldn’t have so many ZIPs to look up for this data again. But we’re hoping a company will resume sending their 100,000 account file. If they do, the ZIPs will definitely have to be looked up. A lot of them have been bad in the past.

Anyway, thanks again for the help.