Locator Style for Apt or Units

DaleSimper · ‎03-21-2011

I was wondering if anyone has an ArcGIS 10 locator style file that will geocode house addresses with Apt or Unit #'s. I have gone through Appendix G of the Customizing Locators document, which is suppose to allow this, but still after customizing my style file as the document instructs I'm not able to geocode Apt or unit #'s. So I was wondering if anyone has had any success in customizing a style file to allow this and are willing to share. Thanks.

RonnieRichards · ‎10-01-2013

My apologies the custom locator for units is working in 10.2, after I completely removed it and recreated my locator tools. I think my problem was due to model builder keeping the names of the Locator Styles and not truely refreshing them based on the environment. Creating a new model to Rebuild the indexes seemed to resolve the issue.

Still I am tired of dealing with these customization's on 100+ workstations and server environments after every upgrade or installation.Please vote to make this a core locator style, it is time.

Also please update the locator whitepaper from 10.0 it is missing many important aspects that are important for Local Government use cases.

BrianOevermann · ‎10-01-2013

Thanks for the follow-up regarding 10.2. And also thanks for the Model Builder comment. I imagine I would be pulling my hair out over that one.

RussellProvost · ‎11-08-2013

Bill,

I'm not sure why my attachment is not working correctly. Post #35 in the link below should be the same file after Brad from ESRI made some tweaks. There is a lot that the white paper fails to cover...

http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/28535-Geocoding-Addresses-with-Apartment-Units?p=128250&viewfull=1#...

I "re-zipped" the file and I am attaching it yet again, but I am guessing that it is a problem with the system and not the file specifically.

Brian

Brian,

Thanks so much for sharing your locator. I too have taken the leap into the black box of customizing address locators for address units. I noticed that your locator style can differentiate between apartment numbers. However, if an address is being matched without an apartment number (123 Main Street), but the reference data contains unit information for this address (123 Main Street, Apt. 1 or 123 Main Street, Apt.2) the matching algorithm will return a score of 100 for each instance in the reference data with the same primary address. I cannot solve this behavior in my locator either. Ideally the scoring would be slightly penalized for the matches with unit information. Any suggestions?

DanMcCoy · ‎07-29-2015

Russell Provost:
However, if an address is being matched without an apartment number (123 Main Street), but the reference data contains unit information for this address (123 Main Street, Apt. 1 or 123 Main Street, Apt.2) the matching algorithm will return a score of 100 for each instance in the reference data with the same primary address. I cannot solve this behavior in my locator either. Ideally the scoring would be slightly penalized for the matches with unit information. Any suggestions?

Has anyone resolved this issue or know if it's been resolved at 10.3?

Thanks,

Dan

BrianOevermann · ‎11-08-2013

I've noticed the "equal successful match" scoring as well. I think it is because the locator successfully matched all of the portions of the address you entered. All of individual units are technically 100% successful matches because you didn't differentiate the address with a unit.

I'm willing to bet that there is a technique to "float" the non-unit address to the top and "penalize" the matches that include a unit, as you describe. Unfortunately, the white paper is sorely lacking, and I have had no success digging anything up in online help (though I haven't tried lately, so maybe things have changed in that regard). I think Brad or another esri employee "in the know" might be able to provide more info.

RussellProvost · ‎11-08-2013

I have attached a locator style that fixes the issues that you are seeing.

Brad,

Thank you for your continued persistence with developing locators that will match at the subaddress level. I noticed that your locatorstyle can differentiate between apartment numbers. However, if an address is being matched without an apartment number (123 Main Street), but the reference data contains unit information for this address (123 Main Street, Apt. 1 or 123 Main Street, Apt.2) the matching algorithm will return a score of 100 for each instance in the reference data with the same primary address. I cannot solve this behavior in my locator either. Ideally the scoring would be slightly penalized for the matches with unit information. Any suggestions?

SteveGay3 · ‎12-16-2013

My apologies the custom locator for units is working in 10.2, after I completely removed it and recreated my locator tools. I think my problem was due to model builder keeping the names of the Locator Styles and not truely refreshing them based on the environment. Creating a new model to Rebuild the indexes seemed to resolve the issue.

Still I am tired of dealing with these customization's on 100+ workstations and server environments after every upgrade or installation.Please vote to make this a core locator style, it is time.

Also please update the locator whitepaper from 10.0 it is missing many important aspects that are important for Local Government use cases.

Do you know if this one will also support units with a mixed alpha and numeric? IE 2a or 3c?

BrianOevermann · ‎12-17-2013

Steve,

It is unclear which locator style you are referring to when you say "this one". The included quote seems to imply my version but to be clear since there are two different unit-based locator styles circulating on this thread:

- Brad (esri) created a style that includes units, and...
- I created a style that includes units and also has a separate field for fractional portions of an address (my style was tweaked by Brad due to lack of info in the white paper)

Depending on the thread response (and link within), it can get a bit confusing which is which. The telling indicator is the inclusion of the fractional field in the style properties. Brad's will do fractionals but only if the fraction is part of the house number field. Our data is set up with the pieces separated, making the different style necessary.

While I cannot definitively say (since I don't use that version) that Brad's locator style will work with mixed alpha and numeric units, it should have no problem doing so. I CAN definitively say that my version does work with mixed alpha and numeric because our data contains such units (i.e. A-3, B101, 2-C, etc.) and matches them with no issues.

RonnieRichards · ‎12-27-2013

Thanks to everyone on this thread for some explanations and help with customizing locators for units. One problem we are having with this locator is in the candidate match it seeds in a # even though the incoming address did not contain a unit. Is there any way to remove the # in the event of a match without a unit?

The locator returns # characters in the match even if no unit supplied or returned in the candidates.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]30128[/ATTACH]

Thanks for any help in advance. ESRI it is time to fully document the new locator styles and scoring rules it has almost been 3 software versions since they were introduced in 10.0!!!

RonnieRichards · ‎12-27-2013

Also wanted to add we are having a problem with scoring incoming records with matches against units. If an incoming record does not contain the unit value and the candidate does this should not be a 100% score in my opinion. I believe this was mentioned in some previous posts how do we add a rank to the unit so the score is reduced for the incoming record. It sounds like there were some suggestions but no enough documentation for me to follow or even attempt to modify.

Attached is a screen shot
[ATTACH=CONFIG]30129[/ATTACH]