Find closest location by postal code

[vicvirk]

I'm in Canada (for those of you unfamiliar with this country, our version of a zip-code is called a postal code)

One of my clients wants to add a feature where a user enters their postal code and then a lookup is done in a business db that finds the closest location to them - I'm sure you (who ever is reading this at this moment in time) has seen this feature on many different websites, but I have absolutely no idea on how to start - don't even know what to google for to find examples...

The site is done in classic ASP and this feature needs to be done in the same - we can use an API to do this, but again I don't know where to start looking...

Currently we just have a drop down list of cities and it shows all the locations in that city, we'd like to narrow it down so the user can find their closest location.

 

[foxbox]

I guess it depends on the postal-code format/logic. In the netherlands it is easy: de format is 1234 AZ. I can search with 1234, 123, 12, and the "circle" becomes larger.

Maybe there is info on the Canadian post website?

I think most solutions work with a table with postal ranges per location.

 

[gmmastros]

Start here:

http://blogs.lessthandot.com/index.php/DataMgmt/DataDesign/sql-server-zipcode-latitude-longitude-pr

-George

"The great things about standards is that there are so many to choose from." - Fortune Cookie Wisdom