How to Convert an Address to GPS Coordinates
The numbers, street names and directional notations of postal addresses help people locate homes or businesses on a map, or determine their location relative to another part of a city.Some mapping applications, however, do not support locations defined in this way, instead requiring a pair or latitude and longitude coordinates. Many GPS applications automatically support conversion between the two forms, using a process known as geocoding. If you need to perform the conversion yourself, use one of several free, Web-based tools to complete the task.
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Instructions
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USC GIS Research Laboratory
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Open a Web browser window, and navigate to the Non-Parsed Postal Address Geocoding page on the USC GIS Research Laboratory website (see Resources).
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Enter the street address, city, state and zip code in the corresponding fields.
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Leave the default options checked unless your needs specifically require otherwise, and then click the "Geocode" button. The coordinates associated with the selected address appear on the following page next to the "Latitude" and "Longitude" labels.
GPS Visualizer
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Open a Web browser window, and navigate to the Quick Geocoder page on the GPS Visualizer website (see Resources).
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Enter the street address, city, state and zip code in the address field. For best results, include a comma after the address and city values.
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Select your preferred mapping program (e.g., "Google," "Yahoo") from the adjacent drop-down menu.
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Click the "Geocode it" button. The coordinates associated with the selected address appear on the following page in the box next to the "latitude, longitude" label.
Geocoder.us
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Open a Web browser window, and navigate to the Geocoder.us website (see Resources).
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Enter the street address, city, state and zip code in the search field. For best results, include a comma after the address and city values.
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Click the "Search" button. The coordinates associated with the selected address appear on the following page next to the "Latitude" and "Longitude" labels.
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References
Resources
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