The first step to building a locator is defining what type of data you have with which to build it. This is done by choosing the locator role that fits your data. An alternate name table role can be used in conjunction with the primary locator role to build a locator that allows you to search against features in the primary reference data that is referenced by more than one name in the alternate name table. The alternate name table role provides the appropriate fields that should be used when building the locator to support alternate names. Once created, a locator contains a snapshot of the primary reference data and alternate name table that is used for geocoding, as well as indexes and local addressing knowledge that help return the best match during the geocoding process.
When building a locator that uses an alternate name table role, an ID field for the corresponding field value in both the primary reference data and alternate name table is required. The Street Address primary locator role is commonly used to model addresses along street segments, but the street name for the addresses may have alternate names. Setting the Street Join ID from the primary locator role to the field in the primary reference data that corresponds to the join ID in the Alternate Street Name role will pull in alternate names for all corresponding records.
The following table shows the alternate name table roles and the ID fields that are used to link to the supported primary locator roles provided with ArcGIS Pro. These roles can be used to geocode an address based on the alternate name for the primary features.
Alternate Name Table Roles
| Roles | Typical primary locator role | Join ID |
|---|---|---|
Alternate House Number | Point Address | Address Join ID |
Alternate House Range | Street Address | Street Join ID |
Alternate Street Name | Point Address Parcel Street Address POI Distance Marker Distance Range | Street Join ID |
Dependent Street Name | Point Address Parcel Street Address POI Distance Marker Distance Range | Street Join ID |
Alternate POI Name | POI | Place Join ID |
Alternate POI Category | POI | Place Join ID |
Alternate City Name | Point Address Parcel Street Address POI Distance Marker Distance Range Postal Postal Extension Postal Locality Administrative areas lower than Subregion | City Join ID |
Alternate Postal City Name | Point Address Parcel Street Address POI Distance Marker Distance Range Postal Postal Extension Postal Locality | Postal Join ID |
Alternate Postal Code | Point Address Parcel Street Address POI Distance Marker Distance Range Postal Postal Extension Postal Locality | Postal Join ID |
Alternate Administrative areas | Administrative areas | Zone Join ID Block Join ID Sector Join ID Neighborhood Join ID District Join ID City Join ID Metro Area Join ID Subregion Join ID Region Join ID Territory Join ID Country Join ID |
Alternate House Number
The Alternate House Number role allows you to create locators for addresses that have alternate house numbers or alternate house number ranges, such as a when you want to model English transliteration of Cyrillic house numbers. For example, the primary address point feature class contains the native language house numbers, such as 2Б or 4Г, and the alternate name table contains the transliterated house numbers, such as 2B or 4G. This alternate name table role can be used with the primary locator role is Point Address. Each address you want to search must be present in the primary reference data and alternate name table.
To use an alternate name table for a locator with the Alternate House Number role, it must have either an individual field that contains the house number or individual fields that contain From house number and To house number information for the address point. It must also have an address join field that contains an ID that can be used to link to the primary reference data by mapping the Address Join ID field from both the primary and alternate name table roles. Optionally, you can specify fields that contain the parity and language code.
Alternate House Range
The Alternate House Range role allows you to create locators for street addresses that have alternate house number ranges, such as when the range values may be different on both sides of the street segment when the street is extended into a new development. This alternate name table role can be used when the primary locator role is Street Address. Each feature in the primary reference data represents a street segment with two ranges of addresses that fall along that street segment, one for each side of the street. This also applies to the alternate name table.
To use an alternate name table for a locator with the Alternate House Range role, it must have four fields that contain alternate From address and To address information for each side of the street and a join field that contains an ID that can be used to link the primary reference data by mapping the Street Join ID field from both the primary and alternate name table roles. Optionally, you can specify fields that contain parity and language code.
Dependent Street Name
The Dependent Street Name role is only applicable in Great Britain and Thailand. It allows you to create locators where two streets are associated with a single address; one street name is stored in the primary reference data and the dependent street name is stored in the alternate name table. This type of situation can happen when a section of a main street is assigned a second street name or when a small street is connected to a main cross street. The Dependent Street Name role can be used when the primary locator role is Point Address, Parcel, Street Address, Distance Maker, or Distance Range.
In the map below, Hottom Gardens is the main street. Rooftop addresses with house numbers 18–24 and 34–40 (represented by pink dots) are on this street, and there is a house number gap between 24 and 34. At some point in the past, premises existed for house numbers 26–32 on Hottom Gardens. However, they have been replaced by a new development, on a new street called Rose Mead, and given rooftop addresses 1–7, represented by the green dots.
To use an alternate name table for a locator created with the Dependent Street Name role, it must have a field that contains the standardized dependent street name and a join field that contains an ID that can be used to link the primary reference data by mapping the Street Join ID field from both the primary and alternate name table roles. In addition, you can specify fields that contain the streets prefix direction, prefix type, street type, suffix direction, and full street name. Optionally, you can specify fields that contain language code or a primary name indicator. If your primary reference data is normalized and does not contain the street name, you can specify a field that contains the primary name indicator. If a primary name indicator value (True/False or Yes/No) exists in the alternate name table and it is mapped to the Primary Name Indicator field from the Dependent Street Name role, the street name with a value of True or Yes will be used as the primary dependent street name. The tables above are connected by the values in the ID field, which should be mapped to the Street Join ID locator role field.
Alternate POI Name
The Alternate POI Name role allows you to create locators that have alternate names for features in the primary POI locator role for points of interest such as landmarks, places, buildings, rivers, mountains, bridges, or virtually any unique feature represented in a feature class. The University of California at Los Angeles has an alternate name of UCLA, which would be added to the alternate name table. This alternate name table role can be used with the primary POI role.
To use an alternate name table for a locator with the Alternate POI Name role, it must have a field that contains the alternate names for the feature in the reference data and a join field that contains an ID that can be used to link the primary reference data by mapping the Place Join ID field from both the primary and alternate name table roles. Optionally, you can specify fields that contain the language code and primary name indicator.
Alternate POI Category
The Alternate POI Category role allows you to create locators based on the primary POI role that have alternate names for categories and subcategories that have been defined to classify features in the primary reference data. Dunkin Donuts is recognized as both a Donut Shop and a Coffee Shop, but If it is classified with a single category as a Donut Shop in the primary reference data, its alternate category of Coffee Shop would be added to the alternate name table.
To use an alternate name table for a locator with the Alternate POI Category role, it must have fields that contain the alternate category and subcategory names for the feature in the reference data and a join field that contains an ID that can be used to link the primary reference data by mapping the Place Join ID field from both the primary and alternate name table roles. Optionally, you can specify fields that contain the language code and primary name indicator.
Alternate Postal City Name
The Alternate Postal City Name role allows you to create locators for postal codes using one of the primary postal locator roles, where there is a primary city name and alternate city names assigned to the same postal code. Each postal feature in the primary reference data will have a postal code and usually a primary city name that the postal code is within, while the alternate name table will contain other city names associated with the postal code. The Alternate Postal City Name role can be used with all of the primary locator roles that are not administrative areas where there are multiple city names associated with the postal code in a multirole locator, or with the postal locator roles in a single locator.
An example of this situation is postal code 80112 in Colorado, where the primary city name is Englewood, but most of the addresses with this postal code are inside the boundary of the city Centennial, which is another city name recognized for addresses in the postal code. When searching for the postal code 80112, the matched candidate returned contains Englewood as the city, which is unexpected.
To use an alternate name table for a locator created with the Alternate Postal City Name role, it must have a field that contains the alternate postal city names and a join field that contains an ID that can be used to link the primary reference data by mapping the Postal Join ID field from both the primary and alternate name table roles. Optionally, you can specify fields that contain the language code and primary name indicator.
Alternate Administrative areas
The Alternate Administrative area roles allow you to create locators that have alternative names for features in the primary Administrative area roles for areas such as cities, neighborhoods, counties, provinces, districts, territories, and states.
To use an alternate name table for a locator with the Alternate Administrative area roles, it must have a field that contains the alternate names for the feature in the reference data and a join field that contains an ID that can be used to link the primary reference data by mapping the corresponding administrative area primary Join ID field from both the primary and alternate name table roles.