Geocoding Address Prefix/Suffix elements

[DEWright_CA]

This is a question going out to the ESRI (Agatha & Bruce) folks; with 10.3+ you guys have gotten sub-units coming along fairly well. But have you looked at handling address prefix and suffix elements?

Cases like this:

• 4525 1/2 S 280TH ST
• A652 N Placer Way SW
• 265B E 128th Street Unit 1

These are instances that are not with the USPS address format; or even the FGDC; but do reflect real-world locations across the US. They do not get handled the same way as the USPS putting them in sub-units since we have instances where these actual can be a split parcel with a sub-unit assigned as well.

[ShanaBritt · Accepted solution]

@David:

These scenarios are addressed with the out of the box US Single House Subaddress style that was included with ArcGIS for Desktop 10.3+ and Pro. 2 out of 3 of the scenarios work at 10.3.1 and all 3 scenarios work at 10.4. The address 'A652 N Placer Way SW' is related to a bug that was submitted for 10.3 or 10.3.1, where the prefix direction is getting parsed as the address number suffix and times out and not candidate is returned or something with a score lower than 100. If the input address does not include the prefix direction a match is returned with a score less than 100. There are other threads that reference this bug and other bugs related to the Single House Subaddress style.

Single House Subaddress Locator Issues - Possible Bug?

Using Single House Subaddress Style Address Locator

I've attached a locator package that includes the reference data if you would like to see the behavior and settings used. Use the Extract Package tool in ArcToolbox to extract the locator package and layer package.

-Shana

Brad Niemand​ Bruce Harold​

[Kathleen_Crombez]

Shana,

We just upgraded to ArcDesktop 10.5 and I am curious why ESRI has removed the address number prefix and suffix elements from the Single House SubAddress locator? Similarly, why did they decide to get rid of a second sub address option? We have thousands of addresses with both building and unit identifiers. And we have thousands of addresses that have address number suffixes.

It seems to me that this last release has gone backwards in functionality and usability. Is there any plan to bring this capability back to the Single House SubAddress locator in future releases?

Thanks,

Kathleen

[ShanaBritt]

Kathleen:

Changes were made to improve performance and match rate. The address prefix and suffix elements should be combined with the address number to be represented as the house number. In the data you provided you would use the CompAddNum field for house number when creating the address locator. The subaddress elements for building and unit has been consolidated into one set of subaddress elements that supports multiple combinations. In the data you provided you could use the CompSubAddress field for SubAddr Unit when creating the address locator. The reference data can be formatted in the 3 ways in the screenshot below for subaddress elements.

When I compared a subset of the data you provided approx 70k records and compared the results of 10.4.1 to 10.5/10.5.1 and there was a 19% improvement in the number matched

The following link is to the Single House Subaddress style in the documentation.

Commonly used address locator styles—Help | ArcGIS Desktop<http://desktop.arcgis.com/en/arcmap/latest/manage-data/geocoding/commonly-used-address-locator-styles.htm#ESRI_SECTION1_7FC7CD744FDA4D379399C92D109FA67A>

You can continue to use the 10.4 style in 10.5, but will be missing out on the improvements to the style that were made. We are still in the planning stages for future releases so I cannot say at this time what Subadress will look like in future releases.

[Kathleen_Crombez]

Shana,

Which of the three sub address options is preferred?

Just curious, how do the results vary if someone was to enter Bldg D, Unit 2 (instead of Bldg D, Apt 2) or if they where to type it all out (Building D, Apartment 2).

Does one of the methods work better than the others?

Thanks,

Kathleen

[ShanaBritt]

Kathleen:

The results were the same using all three methods and spelling out the subaddress element types returned the expected results. Entering a different unit type from the reference data returned matches as well. If you’d like to see the locators I built I can send them to you off the thread.

-Shana