Allows batch geocoding using Google Maps Geocoding API calls.
Geocoding is the process of turning an address like 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA into a latitude and longitude pair (37.422388, -122.0841883).
It turns out that there is a lot of technical work that goes on behind the scenes to do this conversion. The upshot is that latitude and longitude are better to work with because they uniquely determine a location on Earth. This makes geocoded addresses great for creating heatmaps, for example.
Fortunately, there are a lot of geocoding services out there. Even better, Google Maps provides a high quality Geocoding API.
- Python 2.7 or later.
- A Google Maps API key.
pandas,numpy, andgooglemaps(Note:tqdmis included to reduce dependencies)
If you do not have a Google Maps API key, follow the instructions to get an API key.
$ export GOOGLE_API_KEY=AI...The Google Maps Geocoding API has usage limits. At the time of this writing, the standard tier gives 2,500 free requests per day at up to 50 requests per second. They have pay-as-you-go billing (must be manually enabled) $0.50 USD / 1000 additional requests, up to 100,000 daily.
To batch geocode all addresses in the example file provided:
$ python batch_geocoder.py -i addresses_to_geocode.csv -o geocoded_addresses.csv --no-headerOptionally, a limit on the number of addresses to batch geocode can be specified:
$ python batch_geocoder.py -i addresses_to_geocode.csv -o geocoded_addresses.csv --no-header --limit 3
