Get Longitude And Latitude Of Location With Mapbox Geocoding API
June 30, 2020 by Andreas Wik
The Mapbox Geocoding API has a lot of interesting features. I used this recently when I was playing around with a Node.js app and needed to get the longitude and latitude for certain cities/locations.
With this Geocoding API you simply provide a location string, e.g. “Berlin”, and it will return a list of locations (starting with the most relevant) and a bunch of location data, among that data you’ll find the longitude and latitude. You could then use this data to fetch the weather, for example, from a weather API which requires latitude and longitude values. Or maybe to place pins on a map.
You’ll need a free access token to use it, so head over to https://account.mapbox.com/auth/signup/ and create an account.
Once signed in, click your avatar in the top right and select account.
Scroll down to the Access tokens section and hit Create a token.
Now, let’s get to the goodies. The URL format to get location data is as follows:
https://api.mapbox.com/geocoding/v5/mapbox.places/<YOUR_LOCATION_STRING>.json?access_token=<YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN>
Replace <YOUR LOCATION STRING> with, for example, las+vegas and <YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN> with your own token and you’re good to go.
When searching for las+vegas, Mapbox sends back the following JSON data:
{
"type": "FeatureCollection",
"query": [
"las",
"vegas"
],
"features": [{
"id": "place.2306727987317920",
"type": "Feature",
"place_type": [
"place"
],
"relevance": 1,
"properties": {
"wikidata": "Q23768"
},
"text": "Las Vegas",
"place_name": "Las Vegas, Nevada, United States",
"bbox": [
-115.896925507127,
35.6184504774325,
-114.91706715939,
36.853662
],
"center": [
-115.1492,
36.1663
],
"geometry": {
"type": "Point",
"coordinates": [
-115.1492,
36.1663
]
},
"context": [{
"id": "region.10001740274236760",
"wikidata": "Q1227",
"short_code": "US-NV",
"text": "Nevada"
},
{
"id": "country.19678805456372290",
"short_code": "us",
"wikidata": "Q30",
"text": "United States"
}
]
},
{
"id": "locality.11999928169317920",
"type": "Feature",
"place_type": [
"locality"
],
"relevance": 1,
"properties": {},
"text": "Las Vegas",
"place_name": "Las Vegas, 1700000, La Serena, Coquimbo, Chile",
"bbox": [
-71.2881154039999,
-29.95096975,
-71.2501399079999,
-29.909731194
],
"center": [
-71.26,
-29.91
],
"geometry": {
"type": "Point",
"coordinates": [
-71.26,
-29.91
]
},
"context": [{
"id": "postcode.12881273999909190",
"text": "1700000"
},
{
"id": "place.12881273999123870",
"wikidata": "Q14467",
"text": "La Serena"
},
{
"id": "region.5781167022093610",
"wikidata": "Q2121",
"short_code": "CL-CO",
"text": "Coquimbo"
},
{
"id": "country.10394314763731110",
"short_code": "cl",
"wikidata": "Q298",
"text": "Chile"
}
]
},
{
"id": "place.9133521562317920",
"type": "Feature",
"place_type": [
"place"
],
"relevance": 1,
"properties": {
"wikidata": "Q676171"
},
"text": "Las Vegas",
"place_name": "Las Vegas, New Mexico, United States",
"bbox": [
-105.508706017506,
35.2159479901684,
-103.682777973829,
35.781448019878
],
"center": [
-105.2239,
35.5939
],
"geometry": {
"type": "Point",
"coordinates": [
-105.2239,
35.5939
]
},
"context": [{
"id": "region.9994833188678710",
"wikidata": "Q1522",
"short_code": "US-NM",
"text": "New Mexico"
},
{
"id": "country.19678805456372290",
"short_code": "us",
"wikidata": "Q30",
"text": "United States"
}
]
},
{
"id": "poi.34359796358",
"type": "Feature",
"place_type": [
"poi"
],
"relevance": 1,
"properties": {
"landmark": true,
"wikidata": "Q6492605",
"address": "900 Las Vegas Blvd N",
"category": "museum, tourism"
},
"text": "Las Vegas Natural History Museum",
"place_name": "Las Vegas Natural History Museum, 900 Las Vegas Blvd N, Las Vegas, Nevada 89101, United States",
"center": [
-115.133995,
36.179949500000006
],
"geometry": {
"coordinates": [
-115.133995,
36.179949500000006
],
"type": "Point"
},
"context": [{
"id": "neighborhood.290390",
"text": "Cultural Corridor"
},
{
"id": "postcode.14300447974322900",
"text": "89101"
},
{
"id": "place.2306727987317920",
"wikidata": "Q23768",
"text": "Las Vegas"
},
{
"id": "region.10001740274236760",
"wikidata": "Q1227",
"short_code": "US-NV",
"text": "Nevada"
},
{
"id": "country.19678805456372290",
"short_code": "us",
"wikidata": "Q30",
"text": "United States"
}
]
},
{
"id": "poi.850403547924",
"type": "Feature",
"place_type": [
"poi"
],
"relevance": 1,
"properties": {
"landmark": true,
"address": "Hoşnudiye Mah. Vural Sok.",
"category": "bar, pub, alcohol, liquor, beer"
},
"text": "Las Vegas Cafe & Bar",
"place_name": "Las Vegas Cafe & Bar, Hoşnudiye Mah. Vural Sok., Eskisehir, Eskişehir, Turkey",
"center": [
30.514518,
39.779747
],
"geometry": {
"coordinates": [
30.514518,
39.779747
],
"type": "Point"
},
"context": [{
"id": "place.7420961685464830",
"wikidata": "Q168866",
"text": "Eskisehir"
},
{
"id": "region.6292764676256360",
"wikidata": "Q483053",
"short_code": "TR-26",
"text": "Eskişehir"
},
{
"id": "country.12740899366176230",
"short_code": "tr",
"wikidata": "Q43",
"text": "Turkey"
}
]
}
],
"attribution": "NOTICE: © 2020 Mapbox and its suppliers. All rights reserved. Use of this data is subject to the Mapbox Terms of Service (https://www.mapbox.com/about/maps/). This response and the information it contains may not be retained. POI(s) provided by Foursquare."
}
The longitude and latitude are stored in the center property of each location object: [longitude, latitude].
This is what the Mapbox geocoding api docs say about the center property:
“The coordinates of the feature’s center in the form [longitude,latitude]. This may be the literal centroid of the feature’s geometry, or the center of human activity within the feature (for example, the downtown area of a city).”
As you can see, it lists a number of different locations that matches your location search string. The top is what Mapbox finds most relevant: Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. The second one is a place in Chile.
Have fun!
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