Exercise 4: Geocoding addresses in a table and rematching unmatched addresses

Complexity: Beginner

Data Requirement: ArcGIS Tutorial Data for Desktop

Data Path: c:\ArcGIS\ArcTutor\Geocoding

Goal: To geocode a table of addresses and rematch the geocoded feature class

Get the data

The data for this tutorial can be downloaded from arcgis.com.

1. Go to the item description page of the geocoding tutorial data on arcgis.com.
2. Click Open > Download, and save the file locally.
3. Unzip the downloaded file.

Geocoding addresses in a table

If you have a table with addresses, you can geocode all the addresses at once. In this exercise, you’ll start with a table of customer addresses and geocode the entire table to show where the customers are located.

1. Open a new map document in ArcMap. You don’t need to save the map you created in the previous task.
2. Add the Streets feature class and the customers table from your copy of the Atlanta geodatabase to your map.
3. Right-click the customers table in the List by Source view of the Table of Contents and click Geocode Addresses in the context menu.
4. Click Add in the Choose an address locator to use dialog box.
   The Add Address Locator dialog box opens.
5. Browse to the Geocoding folder that contains the Atlanta geodatabase, click the Atlanta address locator, and click Choose.
   The Geocode Addresses: Atlanta dialog box appears.
6. In the Address Input Fields section, click Multiple Fields and select the input fields, if they are not already selected.
7. In the Output section, click the browse button to define the output feature class.

The Saving Data dialog box appears.

8. Click the Save as type drop-down arrow and choose File and Personal Geodatabase feature classes.
9. Browse to your copy of the Atlanta geodatabase and double-click the geodatabase. In the Name text box, type Atlanta_Results.
10. Click Save.

A new point feature class named Atlanta_Results will be created in the Atlanta geodatabase, saving the point features generated by the geocoding process.

11. Click OK to start geocoding.
    The Geocoding Addresses dialog box shows the matching statistics and progress bar for the matching process.

When the geocoding process finishes, the Geocoding Addresses dialog box shows the final statistics of the addresses that were matched or not matched. In this tutorial, three addresses failed to match and one address is tied. You’ll rematch the unmatched addresses later.

12. Click Close to close the Geocoding Addresses dialog box.
    A Geocoding Result layer is added to the map, showing the points added to the Atlanta_Results feature class.

Rematching addresses

1. Select the Geocoding Result: Atlanta_Results layer in the Table of Contents and click the Review/Rematch Addresses button on the Geocoding toolbar.
   The Interactive Rematch dialog box opens.

2. The Interactive Rematch dialog box displays the records in the geocoded feature class at the top. There are three addresses that were not matched. To rematch them, click the Show results drop-down arrow and choose Unmatched Addresses. The result will show three records, with the first one automatically selected. Sometimes an address isn’t matched because a perfect match isn’t found, but there are close match candidates. These are listed in the Candidates section.
3. Arrange the ArcMap window and the Interactive Rematch dialog box so you can see the map.

Near the center of the map, you’ll see a few points highlighted: one in yellow and the others in cyan. These are the candidate locations listed in the dialog box. The selected candidate is highlighted in yellow on the map.

4. Click the Zoom In button on the Tools toolbar and drag over the area of the candidates to zoom in.
5. Click the fourth candidate in the list. The location of the yellow highlighted candidate changes on the map.
6. Click the Match button at the bottom of the dialog box. The selected address is now associated with the fourth candidate and the Status field changes from U to M. The list of unmatched addresses is updated.

Rematching addresses by picking a point location on the map

1. The result set shows two addresses that weren’t matched.
2. Arrange the ArcMap window and the Interactive Rematch dialog box so you can see the map.
3. Click the Zoom In tool and drag over an area of the map.

Use the Pick Address from Map tool to match an unmatched address. When you know where it should be on the map:

4. The result set shows two addresses that weren’t matched.
   When you hover over the map, it shows a cross with a blue dot in the center.
   
5. Click and hold the mouse button along a street segment to display the nearest qualifying address in a ToolTip box. Hover over the desired location, right-click, and click Pick Address.
6. Hover over the desired location.
7. Right-click, and click Pick Address.

The unmatched address is now matched to the point location you picked.

8. Click Close to close the Interactive Rematch dialog box.
   

Geocoding addresses using a composite address locator

In this exercise, the customers address table is geocoded against the composite address locator you created in Exercise 2. It shows how addresses are matched against multiple locators for the best matches.

1. Right-click the customers table in the List by Source view of the Table of Contents and click Geocode Addresses.
2. Click Add in the Choose an address locator to use dialog box.
   The Add Address Locator dialog box opens.
3. Browse to the Geocoding folder with the Atlanta geodatabase, click the Atlanta_Composite locator, and click Add to close the Add Address Locator dialog box.
4. Click OK to close the Choose an address locator to use dialog box.
   The Geocode Addresses: Atlanta_Composite dialog box opens.
5. In the Address Input Fields section, if not already chosen, click the Street or Intersection drop-down list and choose ADDRESS. Choose CITY for the City or Placename field, STATE for State, and ZIP for the ZIP Code field.
6. In the Output section, edit the path to the Atlanta geodatabase and change the result feature class name to Composite_Results.
7. Click OK to start geocoding.
   The Geocoding Addresses dialog box shows the matching statistics and progress bar.

You can see that only one address is not matched.

8. Click Close.
   The Geocoding Addresses dialog box closes, and a Geocoding Result layer is added to the map. The layer shows the points added to the Composite_Results feature class.
   
9. Right-click the Composite_Results layer and click Open Attribute Table.
   The name of the participating address locator used to match the address is shown in the Loc_name field of the attribute table. Some addresses that didn’t match the Atlanta locator were matched by ZIP Code against the Postal_US locator.
   

10. Close ArcMap. You don’t need to save the map document.