PROC GEOCODE

 

PROC GEOCODE is a SAS/GRAPH procedure. The first version shipped in SAS 9.2 and provided geocoding by ZIP Code, ZIP+4, city/state or IP address. Street level geocoding was added in the third maintenance release of SAS 9.2 (TS2M3).
TIGER2GEOCODE update added Jul2011.

 

SGF Paper

 

A 2010 SAS Global Forum presentation discussed geocoding in general and contained specific examples of PROC GEOCODE’s capabilities.

 

Read the paper (PDF) GEOCODE paper SGF 2010.pdf

Download the example SAS programs (ZIP) Examples for GEOCODE paper SGF 2010.zip

 

Street Method Lookup Data

 

The street geocoding method uses the street name and house number to locate the address along that street. Options for acquiring the required lookup data for street geocoding follow.

 

·         Street geocoding lookup data for the entire US is in a zip archive which contains:

o   Comma-separated values (CSV) files of geocoding data

o   ReadMe.txt with instructions and metadata

o   ImportCVSfiles.sas to import CSV files into data sets

The lookup data sets were created from US Census Bureau TIGER/Line shapefiles. The zip archive is 1.1 Gb and downloads slowly. When unzipped the CSV files require 9 Gb of disk space, and the imported lookup data sets require 10 Gb. Note that these lookup data sets are not the same as those used by the SAS/GIS batch geocoder.

This zip archive contains lookup data (Version 6, 30SEP2010) generated from 2009 TIGER files.
Download the US street level lookup data file StreetLookupData-2009.zip

This zip archive contains lookup data (Version 7, 09AUG2011) generated from 2010 TIGER files.
Download the US street level lookup data file StreetLookupData-2010.zip

This zip archive contains lookup data (Version 8, 02FEB2012) generated from 2011 TIGER files.
Download the US street level lookup data file StreetLookupData-2011.zip

 

·         The SAS macro program that imported the Census Bureau TIGER/Line files to create the US lookup data sets noted above is also available. Note that this imports only TIGER/Line shapefiles which were first used by the Census Bureau for TIGER release 2007. It does not import TIGER releases in the older RT file format.

This program can be used to import TIGER shapefiles for specific states and counties of the US if you do not wish to geocode with the entire US lookup data available above. Download TIGER2GEOCODE.zip to import TIGER shapefiles. Usage instructions are in the program file header.

 

·         Currently lookup data created from TIGER/Line shapefiles is the only source of street level geocoding data available for PROC GEOCODE. Given sufficient demand, we can provide an import mechanism for third party geocoding data. Please submit requests through the feedback area of this web site. Also, you are welcome to modify the TIGER2GEOCODE.zip macro program available above to import data from another source. 

 

ZIP+4 Method Lookup Data

 

The PLUS4 method in PROC GEOCODE allows geocoding by ZIP+4 centers. If the PLUS4 geocoding method does not find a match, PROC GEOCODE defaults to the center of the ZIP Code and then if necessary to the city/state center. Options for acquiring the lookup data needed for geocoding by ZIP+4 follow.

 

·         You can download the file ZIP4_Geocode_Data-2006.zip containing:

o   ZIP4.cpo, a SAS transport file with a data set of ZIP+4 lookup data for the US

o   ReadMe.txt with instructions

o   cimport.sas to import the transport file into a lookup data set

The ZIP+4 centers are based on the 2006 Second Edition TIGER/Line files from the US Census Bureau. That was the most recent TIGER/Line release which contained ZIP+4 values. The Census Bureau has said they will include updated ZIP+4 values in a future TIGER release but have not specified which one.

 

Download the ZIP+4 lookup data file ZIP4_Geocode_Data-2006.zip

This is a large file and downloads slowly. The zipped file is 300 Mb. Unzipped it requires 1.8 Gb of disk space.

 

·         The GEO*Data product containing ZIP+4 centroids can be purchased from Melissa Data:

http://www.melissadata.com/geocoder/geodata.htm

 

The autocall macro %GCDMEL9 is provided to import GEO*Data files into lookup data for ZIP+4 geocoding with PROC GEOCODE. See the SAS/GRAPH documentation for details on its use.

 

 

Non-US Postcode Geocoding Data

 

The ZIP method in PROC GEOCODE supports geocoding by any postal code, not only US ZIP codes. If you have a source of postal codes with locations (longitude/latitude) and import them into a SAS data set, they can be used as the lookup data for the ZIP method.

 

The British Ordnance Survey provides the Code-Point Open product containing Royal Mail postcodes with X/Y locations. The SAS macro program %CodePoint2Deocode imports those files for use with PROC GEOCODE. It also converts the British National Grid X/Y coordinates to longitude/latitude in the World Geodetic System 1984 (WGS84) datum.

Download the file CodePoint2Geocode.zip for the Code-Point Open program and html documentation.

 

As we obtain additional sources of free geocoding data for non-US locations, they will be added to this section.

SAS/GIS GEOCODING

 

A batch geocoder is included with the SAS/GIS product. It is not the same geocoder as PROC GEOCODE which is intended to replace it.

 

SGF Paper

 

A presentation was given at SUGI 30 entitled “Cheap Geocoding: SAS/GIS and Free TIGER Data.”  It discussed geocoding concepts and examined several techniques for geocoding address data using the SAS/GIS batch geocoder and TIGER/Line files from the Census Bureau.

 

The paper includes examples of:

· ZIP Code centroid geocoding with the Data step MERGE statement and SASHELP.ZIPCODE*

· Randomly scatter locations about geocoded X/Y values**

· Geocode by city/state with the Data step and SASHELP.ZIPCODE*

· Plot geocoded points with PROC GMAP**

· Street level geocoding*

 

*This geocoding process is more easily accomplished using the new PROC GEOCODE.

**Post-geocoding process that can also be done after using PROC GEOCODE.

Read the paper (PDF)  

Download the example SAS programs (ZIP)  

 

SAS/GIS Geocoding Lookup Data

 

Lookup data for the SAS/GIS geocoder has a slightly different format than the PROC GEOCODE lookup data. This zip archive contains pre-built nationwide data used by SAS/GIS for street level geocoding in the US.

 

This lookup data file is based on the 2009 TIGER/Line files. It also contains a sample geocoding program and a US map.

This is a large file and downloads slowly. The zipped file is 2.5 Gb. Unzipped it requires 17.8 Gb of disk space.
Download SAS/GIS Geocoding Data Gis_Geocoding-2009.zip