3D Analyst Tools ArcToolbox

 An overview of the Geocoding toolbox

(ArcGIS, ArcToolbox) Tools

1. Geocoding is the process of assigning a location, usually in the form of coordinate values, to an address by comparing the descriptive location elements in the address to those present in the reference material. Addresses come in many forms, ranging from the common address format of house number followed by the street name and succeeding information to other location descriptions such as postal zone or census tract. In essence, an address includes any type of information that distinguishes a place.
2. Many common tasks are related to the geocoding process, such as creating and maintaining address locators, geocoding addresses, and getting addresses for point locations. The Geocoding toolbox contains tools to assist in accomplishing these tasks.

• Tools of the Geocoding toolbox:

1. Create Address Locator

Creates an address locator. The address locator can be used to find a location of an address, geocode a table of addresses, or get the address of a point location.

2. Create Composite Address Locator

Creates a composite address locator. A composite address locator consists of two or more individual address locators that allow addresses to be matched against the multiple address locators.

3. Geocode Addresses

Geocodes a table of addresses. This process requires a table that stores the addresses you want to geocode and an address locator or a composite address locator. This tool matches the addresses against the address locator and saves the result for each input record in a new point feature class. When using the ArcGIS World Geocoding Service, this operation may consume credits.

4. Rebuild Address Locator

Rebuilds an address locator to update the locator with the current reference data. Since an address locator contains a snapshot of the reference data when it was created, it will not geocode addresses against the updated data when the geometry and attributes of the reference data are changed. To geocode addresses against the current version of the reference data, the address locator must be rebuilt if you want to update the changes in the locator.

5. Rematch Addresses

Rematches addresses in a geocoded feature class.

6. Reverse Geocode

Creates addresses from point locations in a feature class. The reverse geocoding process searches for the nearest address or intersection for the point location based on the specified search distance. When using the ArcGIS World Geocoding Service, this operation may consume credits.

7. Standardize Addresses

Standardizes the address information in a table or feature class.

To go to all the Geocoding Tools, click here.