Using Alternate Street Names For Beginners

[ChrisHagwood]

I am working on a project in which the data set uses alternate names than my centerlines file.  So, I assume there's a fix for this using ALTNAME geocoding.  However, I have not yet found a help topic that tells me how to create the table of alternate names.  I've seen this (http://webhelp.esri.com/arcgisdesktop/9.3/index.cfm?TopicName=Alternative_searches) but I still don't understand how to go about creating the two parts that match street names in the centerline to alternate names.

I have generally worked around this in the past, but now I'm facing 15% or more of my data that uses alternate street names, so I need to learn how to do this.

I'm using 9.3.

Thanks!

[MichelleLewis]

Hi Chris,

If you can explain a little more specifically about what you're trying to do, I might (big might there) be able to help. At my office, I'm responsible for a statewide roadway network - every road in the state. We have been using alias/alt names with our roads right from the beginning, but we had to create them, they didn't just come to us this way. In our road centerline file we have a primary name & up to 3 alias names. In our milepost layer, we have a primary name and up to 26 alias names.

I'd be happy to help you if I can.

[JoeBorgione]

Chris-  the key to alt names is a join item.  Here is how I've done it:

All the streets I have are either alpha or numeric in name.  Every alpha street has a numeric value that I use for an alias.  The numeric value of each alpha street is stored as an attribute in the original feature class.  I also add a unique identifier other than the OID or GUID.  To make an alias table I simply select those streets where alias_field is not null or <> ' ', and write the records to a stand alone table.  The join item goes with them, so you are good to go.

If you don't have your centerlines set up as I do, you can start from scratch; just be sure to add an item to the original street feature class that you can join to.  Develop your table in such a manner that it has the proper fields you'll need like Pre Dir, Suf Dir, Type etc.  The address ranges will be taken care of in the original data.

Michelle- you are much nicer than me when it comes to aliases.  I'll go two, maybe three deep, but 26!? Your dispatchers had better treat you like a saint!

Hope this helps-

[ChrisHagwood]

Thanks for the offers of help.  I did attempt to create an altname table and I thought I had it figured out to some extent, but it fails when it tries to create the locator.

I have a centerlines file with a streets with many segments.  I created a JOINID field on each segment.  For example, segment JOINID 36 is called FAYETTEVILLE RD, but it's also known as US 401 HWY.

So I have a matching ALTNAME table with JOINID 36 and it's street name is US 401.
STREET_ID DIR_PRE STNAME STYPE DIR_SUF joinid
465               US 401 HWY  36


The ALTNAMES table I'm creating is a DBF file.  The centerlines file table I used was also a DBF table.  Is that what I should be doing?

[JoeBorgione]

Thanks for the offers of help.  I did attempt to create an altname table and I thought I had it figured out to some extent, but it fails when it tries to create the locator.

I have a centerlines file with a streets with many segments.  I created a JOINID field on each segment.  For example, segment JOINID 36 is called FAYETTEVILLE RD, but it's also known as US 401 HWY.

So I have a matching ALTNAME table with JOINID 36 and it's street name is US 401.
STREET_ID DIR_PRE STNAME STYPE DIR_SUF joinid
465               US 401 HWY  36


The ALTNAMES table I'm creating is a DBF file.  The centerlines file table I used was also a DBF table.  Is that what I should be doing?

Your streets need to be in the form of a feature class, not a file. When you geocode, you are turning an address that you and I recognize into a pair of X,Y coordinates that the GIS recognizes;  the coordinate system of your street feature class is the basis of those x-y pairs.

I'm a big fan of personal geodatabases since I'm a big fan of access, so I'll store both my streets feature class as well as my alt-names table there.  I like to keep the addresses in there too, and write my geocoded output there as well.  However, I write my locators to a directory, typically the one that holds the pgdb.

Take a look here; it may help you out a bit.

[ChrisHagwood]

Your streets need to be in the form of a feature class, not a file. When you geocode, you are turning an address that you and I recognize into a pair of X,Y coordinates that the GIS recognizes;  the coordinate system of your street feature class is the basis of those x-y pairs.

I'm not familiar with geodatabases and feature classes yet.  I have worked almost exclusively in shapefiles.  I see a tool for featureclass to shapefile, but not the other way around.

I opened the centerlines shapefile dbf table and added the JOINID field.  I was not working with just a dbf of street names, if that matters.

I felt like I was following all the steps, but when it tries to build the locator, it would fail with a very general error.

[JoeBorgione]

I'm not familiar with geodatabases and feature classes yet.  I have worked almost exclusively in shapefiles.  I see a tool for featureclass to shapefile, but not the other way around.

I opened the centerlines shapefile dbf table and added the JOINID field.  I was not working with just a dbf of street names, if that matters.

I felt like I was following all the steps, but when it tries to build the locator, it would fail with a very general error.

Chris-  I had responded earlier this morning, but apparently didn't click the 'post' button....

Your original post mentioned a 'centerlines file' which I took literally.  To get a shapefile into a geodatabase is pretty easy. Take a look here to start.  That said, you can use shapefiles, I just prefer geodatabases.

Without taking a look at your data, I really can't comment on what the problem is that tosses the error.  If you can post some of your data here, I'd be happy to give it a go, or you can contact me via pm and we can take this off-forum if you prefer.