Commonly used address locator styles

When choosing an address locator style on which to build your address locator, several things should be considered including the type of geometry in your reference data and the format of data you want to geocode. The US Address—Dual Ranges address locator style is used for the majority of common United States street addresses. The General—Single Field style can be used for finding features that are identified by a name or code.

The following table shows some of the basic characteristics of each of the address locator styles provided with ArcGIS. The locator styles for street addresses include optional multiple zone fields. These styles can be used to geocode an address with some additional zone information such as 320 Madison St, 53606 or 329 Holiday Court, La Jolla, CA, 92122. Some locator styles are further extended to include an alternate name table, which allows geocoding addresses based on either the primary or the alternate names of the street. See the Additional style properties section below for more details.

Basic characteristics of address locator styles provided with ArcGIS

Styles	Typical reference dataset geometry	Typical reference dataset representation	Address search parameters	Examples	Applications
US Address—City State	Points or polygons	City within a state in the U.S.	City name, with state name or abbreviation	River Forest, IL	Finding a specific city in a state in the U.S.
US Address—Dual Ranges	Lines	Address range for both sides of street segment	All address elements in a single field	320 Madison St. N2W1700 County Rd. 105-30 Union St.	Finding a house on a specific side of the street
US Address—One Range	Lines	One range for each street segment	All address elements in a single field	2 Summit Rd. N5200 County Rd PP 115-19 Post St.	Finding a house on a street where side is not needed, or street sides are stored as attributes in each street segment
US Address—Single House	Points or polygons	Each feature represents an address	All address elements in a single field	71 Cherry Ln. W1700 Rock Rd. 38-76 Carson Rd.	Finding parcels, buildings, or address points
US Address—Street Name	Lines	Each feature with a street name and optional zone name	Address elements without house number in a single field	Raspberry Lane San Antonio TX	Finding features by street names
US Address—ZIP 5 Digit	Points or polygons	ZIP Code region or centroid	Five-digit ZIP Code	22066	Finding a specific ZIP Code location
US Address—ZIP+4	Points or polygons	ZIP+4 region or centroid	Five-digit ZIP Codes and four-digit extension in separate field	96822-2323	Finding a specific ZIP+4 location
US Address—ZIP+4 Range	Points or polygons	Each feature represents a ZIP Code and a low and high plus-4 range	Five-digit ZIP Codes and four-digit extension in separate field	63703-0078	Finding a specific ZIP+4 location
General—City State Country	Points or polygons	City within a state and country	City name, state name or abbreviation, and country name	Rice, WA, USA Toronto, Ontario, Canada	Finding a specific city in a State and Country
General—Gazetteer	Points or polygons	Each feature represents a particular geographic place name or landmark	All place name elements in a single field	Leeds Castle, England Sapporo, Japan	Finding geographic place names or landmarks in an area or the world
General—Single Field	Points or polygons	Each feature is identified by a text string, name, or code	Single, user-specified variable	Cafe Cabrillo N1N115	Finding features that are identified by a name or code

Table of some of the basic characteristics of each of the address locator styles provided with ArcGIS

US Address—Dual Ranges

The US street address locator style lets you create address locators for common addresses encountered in the United States. One advantage of this address locator style is that it permits you to provide a range of house number values for both sides of a street segment. With this, the address locator can not only deliver a location along the street segment but also can determine the side of the street segment where the address is located.

This address locator style can use feature classes with any type of geometry but typically uses feature classes with line geometry. Each feature in the reference data represents a street segment with two ranges of addresses that fall along that street segment, one for each side of the street.

To use a shapefile or feature class as reference data for the US Address—Dual Ranges address locator style, it must have four fields that contain from address and to address information for each side of the street as well as street name information, a feature ID field, and a SHAPE field. The feature ID field can be an ObjectID or any unique ID field in the feature class. In addition, you can specify fields that contain the street's prefix direction, prefix type, street type, suffix direction, or zone.

Each street address style supports normal block ranges, alphanumeric addresses with grid zone, or hyphenated addresses containing cross-street information in the house number. Optional fields such as ZIPL and ZIPR (ZIP for each side of the street), left/right city, and state abbreviation fields in the reference feature class can be used.

Each of the US street address locator styles, while having different requirements for reference data, has the same requirements for input address data. Tables of addresses that can be geocoded using these address locators must have an address field containing the street number and street name in addition to the street's prefix direction, prefix type, street type, or suffix direction, if any. Intersection descriptions (for example, Eureka Blvd. & Vine St.) can also be included in this field.

Alphanumeric ranges

Alphanumeric house number ranges are used in some regions of Wisconsin and Illinois. The alphanumeric portion of the address usually represents a grid zone. For example, the address N84W 16301 W Donald Ave suggests that the address is not only at 16301 West Donald Avenue but also in grid zone N84W.

This address locator style can use feature classes with any type of geometry but typically uses those with line geometry representing the street network. Each feature in the reference data represents a street segment with two address ranges, one for each side of the street.

Hyphenated ranges

Hyphenated number ranges in U.S. addresses depict a number that is usually the number of the cross street followed by a hyphen, then the actual number of the house along the street (for example, 76-20 34th Ave). One location that uses this type of address style is Queens, New York. The first number indicates either the north or west cross street. The second number indicates where on the block the building is located.

This address locator style can use feature classes in a geodatabase with any type of geometry but typically uses feature classes with line or polyline geometry. Each feature in the reference data represents a street segment with two ranges of addresses that fall along that street segment, one for each side of the street.

In the from address and to address fields of the feature class, the house number can be a hyphenated number or a simple house number. For example, as shown in the table below, the address ranges 75-01 – 75-99 and 75-00 – 75-98 must contain a hyphen that separates the cross street and the actual house number.

US Address—One Range

The US Address—One Range address locator style lets you create an address locator for street segments with address ranges. This address locator style is similar to the US Address—Dual Ranges style; however, this style requires only one range for each road segment. This address locator style typically uses feature classes with line or polyline geometry. Each feature in the reference data represents a street segment with a range of addresses that fall along that street segment.

To use a feature class as reference data for a US Address—One Range address locator, it must have fields that contain from address, to address, and street name information; a feature ID field; and a SHAPE field. In addition, you can specify fields that contain the street's prefix direction, prefix type, street type, suffix direction, or zone.

The US Address—One Range address locator style has the same address table requirements as the US Address—Dual Ranges address locator style.

US Address—Single House

The US Address—Single House locator style lets you create address locators for United States addresses. This locator style uses feature classes with polygon or point geometry as reference data. Each feature in the reference data corresponds to a single address. For example, you can use a feature class containing parcel polygons, building footprints, or parcel centroids (the center points of parcel polygons) as reference data for a US Address—Single House locator. Each address you want to search must be present on the reference data. Exact locations cannot be extrapolated or interpolated from any type of range of addresses on a street. As shown below, the US Address—Single House address locator style requires that each feature in the reference data correspond to a single address value, such as parcels or buildings.

To use a feature class as reference data for a US Address—Single House locator, it must have individual fields that contain a street number and street name information, a feature ID field, and a SHAPE field. In addition, you can specify fields that contain the street's prefix direction, prefix type, street type, suffix direction, or zone.

The US Address—Single House locator style has the same address table requirements as the US street address locator style.

US Address—Street Name

The US Address—Street Name locator style lets you create address locators for street name addresses encountered in the United States. This address style is similar to the US Address—Dual Ranges locator style, except that address ranges in the line reference data are not required. Addresses are searched based on the street name only; for example, Orchard Court, Lansing, MI.

This address locator style is recommended if the reference data does not have address ranges and the input addresses do not contain house numbers. Since many segments in the reference data may have the same street names, searching will be more efficient if segments of the same name are chained together before you use it for creating an address locator.

The US Address—Street Name locator style has the same address table requirements as the US street address locator style. When an address is found, the matched location is placed on the middle of the segment.

US Address—ZIP 5-Digit

The US Address—ZIP 5-Digit address locator style lets you create address locators for postal codes. While specifically designed for United States five-digit ZIP Code values, any short integer postal code can be used. This address locator style uses feature classes with point or polygon geometry, and each feature in the reference data represents a ZIP polygon or its centroid.

Reference data for a US Address—ZIP 5-Digit style address locator must have a field that specifies the 5-digit postal code for the feature in addition to ObjectID and SHAPE fields.

Tables of addresses that can be geocoded using this address locator style must contain a field that has the ZIP Code information.

US Address—ZIP+4

The US Address—ZIP+4 address locator style is for geocoding United States ZIP+4 Codes. This locator style can be used to create address locators that use point or polygon feature classes as reference data.

Each feature in the reference data source represents a ZIP+4 Code boundary polygon or its centroid. In addition to ObjectID and Shape fields, the reference data feature class or shapefile must have a text field that represents the 5-digit ZIP Code of the feature and another text field that contains the 4-digit +4 code.

To geocode a table of addresses using a US Address—ZIP+4 address locator, the table must have a text field that contains the entire ZIP+4 Code (the 5-digit ZIP Code as well as the +4 code), as in 12345-6789, 12345 6789, or 123456789.

US Address—ZIP+4 Range

The US Address—ZIP+4 Range address locator style lets you create address locators for a range of United States ZIP+4 Codes. This address locator style can use feature classes with point or polygon geometry, and each feature in the reference data represents a contiguous block with a specific range of ZIP+4 Codes.

To use a feature class or shapefile as reference data for a US Address—ZIP+4 Range address locator style, it must have fields that specify the five-digit ZIP for the feature and the lower and upper bounds for the four-digit add-on code in addition to ObjectID and SHAPE fields.

The US Address—ZIP+4 Range address locator style has the same address table requirements as the US Address—ZIP+4 address locator style. A match is assigned to a feature that covers the range of ZIP+4 values.

General—City State Country

The General—City State Country address locator style lets you create locators for city names that contain fields that have city, state name or country information. This address locator style can use feature classes with point or polygon geometry. Each feature in the reference data represents a city polygon or its centroid.

Reference data for this address locator style must have fields that specify the city name of the feature in addition to ObjectID and SHAPE fields. State and Country names for the feature are optional fields.

Tables of addresses that can be geocoded using this address locator style must also contain fields that have city name and optional state and country specific information that is used to narrow down the search .

General—Gazetteer

The General—Gazetteer address locator style lets you create locators for data that contains the gazetteer names. A gazetteer is a geographical dictionary or directory for place-names. You can use address locators created with this style to find features like mountains, bridges, rivers, cities, etc.

This locator style uses feature classes with point or polygon geometry as reference data. In addition to a feature ID field and SHAPE field, feature classes that you can use as reference data for the locator mush have attributes representing the names and geographical zones such as city, state, country to distinguish the location of the feature.

Table of addresses that can be geocoded using this locator style must also contain the place names and geographical zones. The geographical zone information is used to narrow down the search since it is common that the same name, such as Rochester, can be found in multiple states in the country.

General—Single Field

The General—Single Field address locator style lets you create address locators for address data that contain the location information in a single field. This address locator style has a broad range of applications. You can use the address locator style to geocode location descriptions, such as place-names, points of interests, or codes for identify locations such as N1N115. In addition, you can use the Single Field address locator style to create address locators to find hydrologic units, census tracts, and virtually any unique feature represented in a feature class.

Although Single Field address locators can use feature classes with any type of geometry, they typically use feature classes with point or polygon geometry as reference data. In addition to a feature ID field and SHAPE field, feature classes that you can use as reference data for the locator must have a specific field that contains the unique name or value for that feature. It is this field in the attribute table that is referenced when geocoding against the reference data.

Tables of addresses that can be geocoded using a Single Field address locator style must also contain a single field with the same unique name or value that can be used to identify the locations.

Additional style properties

As you look over the list of address locator styles on the Create New Address Locator dialog box, you'll notice that there are other attributes to distinguish the various address locator styles. These include the presence of an alternative name table in the address locator style.

Alternate names

You can use a table to define alternate names for the features in your reference data feature class. Using alternate street names allows you to match an address to a feature using one of many names for the feature. For example, if Bridge Street is also known as Slash Road, you can find the same address using 266 Bridge Street as you can using 266 Slash Road.

While the reference feature data must contain a user-defined and unique JOINID field for each feature, tables that are used to specify alternate street names must also have an ID field, a JOIN_ID that specifies the feature in the reference data to which the alternate name applies, and alternate street name fields. The table can have fields that contain prefix direction, prefix type, street type, or suffix direction information. You can specify multiple alternate names for the same feature in your reference data by creating records in the alternate street name table with the same JOIN_ID, referencing the same feature in the reference data feature class.

Each record in an alternate name table applies to only one feature in your reference data feature class. To specify an alternate name for all features that make up a particular street in your reference data feature class, you must create a record in the alternate name table for each feature in your reference data feature class.

Learn more about an alternate name table

Using the City, State, and ZIP fields

Many times, additional fields are found on the reference data that further clarify the location of the attribute including postal codes, states, or countries. This type of information is referred to as zone information and can be used to increase the likelihood of a correct match. Although zone fields are optional when creating an address locator, including the zones such as City, State, and ZIP fields is helpful to facilitate nationwide geocoding.

Additional fields

Each locator style includes one or two additional fields. These fields are optional. You can choose any field from the reference feature class to be included as an additional field. When you search for an address using a locator that has a specified additional field, the information from the corresponding field in the reference data is displayed in the address candidates and saved in the output feature class.

Common examples include Block ID, special identifiers, or names of property owners. The additional field saved in the output feature class can be used to join to other attribute tables or feature classes for further spatial analysis. The information can also be useful when you rematch the addresses and need additional information to determine a correct match.