I have been using this service for a while now to geocode addresses.
It is described somewhat in this URL (and other pages navigable from it)
https://developers.arcgis.com/rest/geocode/api-reference/overview-world-geocoding-service.htm
The service creates many output fields, many of which seem to
be completely useless as they are always blank. Others seem
redundant.
My questions to the group are two:
1. Is there a better geocoder to use (that doesn't cost extra money!)
One would think that an online service should be the most up-to-date.
2. More importantly, is there, in the configuration of this geocoding service, a place
where one can specify that one doesn't want certain fields? Some other geocoders
do seem to have that configurability.
At the moment, I subsequently run the Delete Field tool to remove many
of these fields (those in red below). Sure, I could just leave them; but they occupy
space and when one looks at the data one has constantly to
scroll umpteen times to the right to see the actual non-geographic
data that was in the original dataset. I suppose I could just hide them.
I list the fields here (not in order). Those in blue seem useful (even if not to me).
Those in red seem useless (I find many of them are blank)
Status
Score
Match_type
Match_addr
Addr_type
AddNumFrom
AddNumTo
Side
X
Y
DisplayX
DisplayY
Xmin
Xmax
Ymin
Ymax
Type
PlaceName
Place_addr
Phone
URL
Rank
AddBldg
AddNum
StPreDir
StPreType
StName
StType
StDir
StAddr
Nbrhd
City
Subregion
Region
Postal
PostalExt
Country
LangCode
Distance
ARC_Address
ARC_Neighborhood
ARC_City
ARC_Subregion
ARC_Region
ARC_Postal
ARC_PostalExt
ARC_CountryCode
(As you can see, there are a hell of a lot of these fields, and there seems to be redundancy in meaning).
It would also seem that if one deletes these fields one might not easily be able re-geocode the addresses.
I have not tested that, though.
