Get a friendly location name given a set of geo coords? - iphone

Question

Is it possible to get a human-friendly textual description of the closest meaningful landmark (such as a street intersection) for a given set of geographical coordinates, for example via a web service like Google Maps or some other third party? I am using MapKit, but I doubt it has anything built in. Turns out it does.
For example, I'm looking for something like the closest street intersection (in fact that would be ideal) or any kind of "place name" really. Things like:
E Hastings St and Main St
128 W Cordova St
PNE Fairgrounds

Answer 1

So I have done a project with this exact problem I came across... You can refer to the CLPlacemark class reference in the apple developer webpage.
Here is the way I used it, I think you also have to add the corelocation library as well to the project, as I had done.
#import <CoreLocation/CoreLocation.h>
Now in the .h file:
Add the CLLocation Delegate : <CLLocationManagerDelegate>
Then add the following instance variables:
CLLocationManager *locationManager;
CLLocation *currentLocation;
Now in the .m file:
-(void) viewDidLoad{
locationManager = [[CLLocationManager alloc] init];
locationManager.delegate = self;
locationManager.distanceFilter = kCLDistanceFilterNone; // whenever we move, location is updated
locationManager.desiredAccuracy = kCLLocationAccuracyBest; // get best current locaton coords
locationManager.headingFilter = 1;
[locationManager startUpdatingLocation];
[locationManager startUpdatingHeading];
}
And now implement the CLLocationManager Delegate Method in after the viewDidLoad method, or before, whichever you perfer:
#pragma mark CLLocationManager Delegate
- (void)locationManager:(CLLocationManager *)manager didUpdateLocations:(NSArray *)locations {
currentLocation = [locations objectAtIndex:0];
[locationManager stopUpdatingLocation];
NSLog(#"Detected Location : %f, %f", currentLocation.coordinate.latitude, currentLocation.coordinate.longitude);
CLGeocoder *geocoder = [[CLGeocoder alloc] init] ;
[geocoder reverseGeocodeLocation:currentLocation
completionHandler:^(NSArray *placemarks, NSError *error) {
if (error){
NSLog(#"Geocode failed with error: %#", error);
return;
}
CLPlacemark *placemark = [placemarks objectAtIndex:0];
NSLog(#"City = %# : State = %# : Country = %# : Zip Code = %#", placemark.locality, placemark.administrativeArea, placemark.ISOcountryCode, placemark.postalCode);
}];
}
Run the code and make sure that if your using the iOS simulator, be sure to simulate a location by clicking on the arrow button just above the console output screen.
It only shows up once you have built and ran your project.
Hopefully this helps you :)
Heres the output I got:
2013-08-02 20:39:46.935 PowerOneApp[3449:c07] Detected Location : 37.785834, -122.406417
2013-08-02 20:39:49.773 PowerOneApp[3449:c07] City = San Francisco : State = California : Country = US : Zip Code = 94115
EDIT
Sorry, I realized when I wrote this answer that you wanted more EXACT coordinates.
Here:
#pragma mark CLLocationManager Delegate
- (void)locationManager:(CLLocationManager *)manager didUpdateLocations:(NSArray *)locations {
currentLocation = [locations objectAtIndex:0];
[locationManager stopUpdatingLocation];
NSLog(#"Detected Location : %f, %f", currentLocation.coordinate.latitude, currentLocation.coordinate.longitude);
CLGeocoder *geocoder = [[CLGeocoder alloc] init] ;
[geocoder reverseGeocodeLocation:currentLocation
completionHandler:^(NSArray *placemarks, NSError *error) {
if (error){
NSLog(#"Geocode failed with error: %#", error);
return;
}
CLPlacemark *placemark = [placemarks objectAtIndex:0];
NSLog(#"%#", placemark.addressDictionary);
NSLog(#"%#", [placemark.addressDictionary valueForKey:#"Street"]);
}];
}
Heres the output:
2013-08-02 20:44:26.052 PowerOneApp[3531:c07] Detected Location : 37.785834, -122.406417
2013-08-02 20:44:26.340 PowerOneApp[3531:c07] {
City = "San Francisco";
Country = "United States";
CountryCode = US;
FormattedAddressLines = (
"Apple Store, San Francisco",
"1800 Ellis St",
"San Francisco, CA 94115-4004",
"United States"
);
Name = "Apple Store, San Francisco";
PostCodeExtension = 4004;
State = California;
Street = "1800 Ellis St";
SubAdministrativeArea = "San Francisco";
SubLocality = "Union Square";
SubThoroughfare = 1800;
Thoroughfare = "Ellis St";
ZIP = 94115;
}
2013-08-02 20:44:26.340 PowerOneApp[3531:c07] 1800 Ellis St
As you can see, there is a property called addressDictionary that returns ALL the propertys the CLPlacemark class holds. So here, if your familiar with NSDictionary objects, I just outputted the entire dictionary first then specified which value I wanted to log.
Hopefully this helps your exact question :)

Answer 2

check google maps api, I think something like this should work:
var geocoder = new google.maps.Geocoder(),
lat = "12.1234",
long = "98.7654",
latlng = new google.maps.LatLng(sLat, sLong);
geocoder.geocode({"latLng":latlng},function(data,status) {
if(status == google.maps.GeocoderStatus.OK) {
var add = data[1].formatted_address; //this is the full address
alert(add);
}
});
you can get the "E Hastings St and Main St" and full name of venue as well, you just need to add more stuff to the function. check out the google maps api.