Address Locator - Manually Locates But Won't Geocode

[Roger_Schulz]

I've created a multi-role address locator that includes point addresses, street centerlines, parcels, POIs, and reference tables for alternate spellings and similar variations. The locator works great when I manually search using the Locate tool, but I'm having trouble getting it to work for batch geocoding.

I'm trying to geocode a table in CSV format that contains simple addresses and intersections. Unfortunately, both types of data are failing to geocode properly. The dataset I'm working with has over 200,000 records, but the best match rate I've achieved so far is just 12%. ( I have tested manually looking up the unmatched ones and I am getting actual matches) 

I also am only seeing a match score that is either 100 or 0 and nothing in between

Am I missing something obvious here? Any insights or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance for your help.

[MichaelVolz]

As a test I would create simpler address locators with one role and see how that works compared to multi-role.  If that works as expected for each role, then I would start to add more than 1 role to each locator to see if you still get good results.  Good luck.

[Roger_Schulz]

I've tested smaller datasets and noticed something odd. I understand that altering the format of the input data might change the results, but here's the strange part: when an address fails to match during batch geocoding, I can copy and paste that exact same address into the Locate tool, and it pops up immediately without any format changes or edits. But when processed in a batch, it returns a 0 match score.

The goal is to avoid having to modify the input data, as it's being regularly pulled from another software and needs to be geocoded immediately. Constantly cleaning or reformatting the data isn't a feasible solution.

Does anyone have insights into why this discrepancy might occur between manual and batch geocoding? Could there be something in the batch process that's affecting how the locator reads or interprets the data? Any suggestions on how to "address" this would be greatly appreciated!

[ShanaBritt]

@Roger_Schulz Can you provide screenshots of the Reference data section for each role in the multirole locator as well as the alternate name table section and an example of the input address in the table you are batch geocoding? If after you geocode the table and you open the Rematch Addresses pane do you see candidates for the unmatched addresses? Which version of ArcGIS Pro are you using?

[Roger_Schulz]

Running Arc Pro 3.2.1
It's an Enterprise GDB hosting the all the data fields. v.11.3

Below are some screen shots of the process. we can see how all the example data. (both intersections and address specific are yielding candidates and solutions manually using locate. 
I have run the geocode table in many different ways, most common way is to right click, geocode table, and run the wizard. 
with these 4 points I got 0 matched and none have a score above 0. 
The alternate table is for Alternate address and street post direction and type abbreviation corrections. 

Thanks for your help on this. 

[ShanaBritt]

@Roger_Schulz Thanks for providing the screenshots of the Locate pane, do those same candidates show in the Rematch Addresses pane for this  intersection address?

As for the locators, I was looking more for the following so that I can see the field mapping of each role and make sure things are linked correctly.

[Roger_Schulz]

Thank you for the follow up. 
First, for the address in the locate pane (Central and 109th) there are 0 candidates in the rematch pane. There are no candidates for any un-matched address. It either matches with a 100 score or yields 0 candidates. It is quite odd. 

Second, I double checked all my settings for roles, order of importance and field matching. All of my fields appear to be properly joined and build correctly. Thanks again for pointing out that spot for field mapping in the properties. 

I have submitted this topic as a support case with Esri, we will see what comes of it. 

[ShanaBritt]

@Roger_Schulz In the field mapping of the roles do you have city, state, or zip mapped? From the results of the Locate pane it does not look like you do for StreetAddress role. When the locator does not have any zones (city , state, county, zip) , which are considered locations and you search for the address in the Locate pane the center of the map is used as the location and returns suggestions and find results. Batch geocoding doesn't have any awareness of location (city, state, zip, county...) , so it would need to be included in the table if the locator has zones in the field mapping.

What is the addr_type value of the addresses that have a score of 100?

[Roger_Schulz · Accepted solution]

Solution has been reached. @ShanaBritt was on the right track when it came to Zones and the issues it might create. 
The "match no zones" selection was "No" even though my locator did not have zones. I was sure I had toggled that setting both ways throughout this process but it appears the right combination of settings was never produced. 

Our locator does not have nor do we want it to have zones. So, this setting must be set to YES in order to properly geocode addresses and intersections.