Locate Addresses with Units

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68
07-22-2019 01:18 PM
BryanLynn1
New Contributor III

I have created a locator using the Point Address Role. The locator works but it will not locate or provide candidates for addresses that contain units. For example: 606 Main St will work but 606 Main St Suite 150 will not. This is a big problem when all of the addresses on a parcel have unit addresses. For example: 10001 Kingston Pike only exists with units (e.g. Suite 100 - 150) and since all the address points have unit values it will not show up in the candidates list.

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68 Replies
BryanLynn1
New Contributor III
The behavior in the original post is expected behavior for subaddress addresses, a unit indicator (#, APT, UNIT...) is required to return address matches.

The problem I am seeing is - I can't find the subaddress addresses even if I use a unit indicator (#, APT, UNIT...). The locator only will find an address match that doesn't have a subaddress. Here is screen shot showing a search for 606 main st #150 - which results in the locator ONLY finding 606 MAIN ST and not the subaddress.

It would be great to understand the use case for providing suggestions for subaddress, as well as, returning all units associated with the base address when searching for the base address.

The image below actually shows 2 problems. First, the need for subaddresses in suggestions. Without subaddresses in suggestions - you won't know that 2220 CLINCH AVE #1 even exists. Second, and the bigger problem here, even if you know 2220 CLINCH AVE #1 exists you can't find it. Now, should you have a parcel with out a base address of 2220 CLINCH AVE? I don't know, I am not over addressing.....I just type on my little keyboard and try to make things work 

At what point in typing the address do you expect the unit suggestion be returned? If you are searching an address for a building with 1,000 units, are you expecting to scroll through all 1,000 unit candidates to find what you are looking for? 

I guess in my mind, when you type 606 MAIN it would be nice to see a list of suggestions that included 606 MAIN ST, 606 MAIN ST #100, 606 MAIN ST #150, 606 MAINTENANCE LN.... at least you would know there are several units at 606 MAIN ST. Now, as a programmer, I can see a couple of problems on how to make this work well in all situations (especially if you have a building with 1000 units), but you are only showing a few suggestions (like 6 -10 or so). I really don't think anyone is expecting to scroll through a 1000 suggestions. I can also see an argument that the unit numbers keep you from seeing 606 MAINTENANCE LN as a suggestion because all of the unit suggestions from 606 MAIN ST push it off the list. However, once you get to 606 MAINT the MAIN ST suggestions drop off the suggestion list and you will see what you need. So, I am not sure what the best solution is here for including units in the list of suggestions but going back to image #2 above - having units in the suggestion list would help you find 2220 CLINCH AVE #1.

Thanks for taking the time to look at this. I have to say the dialog with the Esri staff on this issue has been outstanding.

I know I need to open a support ticket - I have just been sidetracked on a couple of priority tasks.

JoeBorgione
MVP Emeritus

My address point data has a 'Full Address' field and when appropriate has the unit included in the form of 1234 S Main St #1.  I've created a POI role pointing to that field and it seems to be working for me with respect to suggestions.  I've also taken a look at the locator properties / performance / default number of suggest candidates.  Shana's comment about 1,000 units strikes a specific chord there....

Things head south when you get greedy....

That should just about do it....
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DanMcCoy
Occasional Contributor III

Bryan Lynn‌, did you ever open a support ticket and/or get a BUG# for this?  Eric Anderson‌, has this been fixed?

Thanks,

Dan

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BryanLynn1
New Contributor III

No. Our need/use of ArcGIS Pro has really dropped at this point (we are sticking with ArcMap for the short term) so it isn’t a huge deal right now but we need the ability to search for unit level addresses.

Thanks for checking back,

Bryan

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BradNiemand
Esri Regular Contributor

Bryan,

I would really like to understand the use case for when you are trying to find an address where you don't know the subunit information.  In what case would you know the base address but not the subaddress and seeing all of the subaddress information would help to make a decision?

We are working on adding support for suggestions with subaddresses for an upcoming release of Pro.

Brad

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DanMcCoy
Occasional Contributor III

One use case would be for an agent or customer service rep taking a call from a customer.  If the caller says they are at 2220 CLINCH AVE, the CSR could look at the suggestions and ask "are you in Apt #1, 2, or 3?"

Also, there's the whole idea of suggestions just enabling users to type less and pick the correct address including subaddress when it pops up...  I think there's just an intuitive expectation that suggestions should behave the same way for addresses with units as those without....

Hopefully, that's helpful...

Dan

BryanLynn1
New Contributor III

Dan McCoy is spot on in his reply. But another situation we currently have is some locations only have subunit addresses. The addressing folks are looking at changing this in the future but for now it is allowed and it exists. The Clinch address is a good example. If you look at the screen shot a few items back you will see that 2020 Clinch Ave only has unit addresses. So if the units don't show up in the suggestions then the user would never know it was a valid address.

BradNiemand
Esri Regular Contributor

Bryan and Dan,

What is your expectation if there are hundreds or thousands of subaddresses tied to a base address?  You expect to get all of them back and will scroll through hundreds or thousands of candidates?  What about with suggestions when there are hundreds of subaddreses but also multiple addresses that had the same address but in different cities or postal codes?  What would you expect to see in the suggestion list?  you wouldn't be able to see all of them because there would just be too many.

Is the point here not to actually get all of the candidates back but actually understand that there are subaddresses tied to a base address?  What if the suggestion indicated that there were multiple subaddress or businesses tied to a base address so that a call center operator could then ask additional information from the caller.

Something like 100 main st, My City, My State, Postal (150 units)

I look forward to any additional feedback on this.

Brad

DanMcCoy
Occasional Contributor III

I think the general expectation would be the more you type, the fewer candidates will be returned.

I our case, we would just be creating locators for addresses in our county only.  So, there could be the same address in different cities or ZIPs, but it wouldn't be too many.  Being able to tweak the default and max # of suggestions in the performance properties like in Bryan's gif should work for us if suggestions were providing legitimate subaddresses.

In cases where there are relatively few subaddresses, it would be great to see all of them... especially, if you've already typed out the house # and street.   If there are too many to show for some reason, I think once you type the first character or two of the unit, the number of matches would drop to where you could see all of the remaining candidates.

I like the possibility of having something like "100 main st, My City, My State, Postal (150 units)".... even better if you could click to expand and see the units.


I'll let Bryan chime in... it looks like he has more experience with suggestions.

Thanks for asking,

Dan

KyleGruber
Occasional Contributor II

Brad,

I think you hit the nail on the head for my personal use case.  When geocoding just the base address, I would like to show that there are units tied to the base address.  Obviously it's pointless to show a list of 500 or even 100, so just the first 20 or whatever the default number happens to be.  Then obviously with suggestions, as Dan stated, it would be great to narrow that list in suggestions the more you type in.

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