ArcGIS10: Use xlsx file as Reference Data to create Address Locator. Errors!!??

Anonymous User

Original User: ScottChang25

Hi all,
I used an Excel 2007 worksheet to make an xlsx file:
OID Org_Name                 Address         City State ZIP_Code
0 Kentucky Theatre     214 East Main Street     Lexington   KY 40507
1 Repulic Bank & Trust Company 2401 Harrodsburg Road Lexington   KY 40504
2 Square D                             1601 Mercer Road Lexington   KY 40501
3 Community Trust Bank 901 Beaumont Centre Parkway Lexington KY 40513
4 Link-Belt Cranes                2651 Palumbo Drive Lexington   KY 40909
5 Central Bank & Trust Company 3270 Tates Creek Road Lexington  KY 40509
6 Glass America    3801 Nicholasville Centre Drive Lexington   KY 40503
7 Odessa Roofing Inc & Repair 232 Gold Rush Road Lexington   KY 40503
8 Blue Grass Plating Co. 451 North Estill Avenue Richmond   KY 40475
9 Farmers Bank            213 East Main Street Wilmore   KY 40390
10 Central Bank & Trust Co.  301 North Main Street        Nicholasville   KY 40356
Then I used it as Reference Data to create an Address Locator and I got errors - see the attached files.
Please kindly help and advise me what is wrong in my xlsx file, what format I should use to create the table for Reference Data, and how to solve the errors.

Thanks,
Scott Chang

scLexingtonKyAddressLocator-3.JPG

scLexingtonKyAddressGeocoding--2.JPG

Anonymous User

Original User: jborgion

+1 to what Matt says.

The very basic concept of geocoding is you are matching a name or an address to a geographic location.  For example: If I have a POINT feature class and  three of the points are named Matts House, Joes House and Scotts House respectively, and I have a TABLE of events (like Loud Party Complaints) and those records contain various location references and a few show Joes House and a few more Show Matts house, I can then match those complaints to a geographic location, and display them in the form of a map.

Addtionally, if I have a LINE feature class of streets that have address ranges on them, I can use them as the basis to geo-locate my table of events.  Lets say that Loud Party Compliant table has as locations not only references to Joes House and Matts House, but actual addresses as well; for example 1234 Main St. 

I can create one locator based on points and one locator based on streets and composite them together.  That way, regardless of how the location field in the complaints table is populated, 1234 Main St or Joes House, I will be able to get a match.

Bottom line:  The G of GIS stands for Geography.  You need to have a GIS feature class to match against.  Your list of addresses you wish to map can be in just about any format you want.  Spreadsheets included.

Hope this helps-