PERL Zipcode Database Tools

It seems that every day it becomes harder to locate simple text files and programs to manage those files. More and more those files are being offered for sale with some software which amounts to a few lines of code to search a plain text file.

To make life easier for the perl developers I am posting some basic zipcode manipulation tools here as well as the us zipcode databases needed in plain text files.

The object of the zipcode tools is to help you understand distance calculations and zipcode data lookups and provide simple solutions that you can integrate into larger programs like classifieds and social networks.

Distance Calculations

Caluculating distance is basic geometry. The earth is divided into latitude and lognitude coordinates and the distance between them is just like calculating the disttance between any 2 points on a sphere, but our has a diameter of about 4000 miles. As long as we know the coordinates of each point we can determine the distance between those points with a simple equation.

In math it would look something like this:

dlon = lon2 - lon1
dlat = lat2 - lat1
a = sin^2(dlat/2) + cos(lat1) * cos(lat2) * sin^2(dlon/2)
c = 2 * arcsin(min(1,sqrt(a)))
d = R * c

Now lets convert that to perl, something we can all understand.

# Find the distance
$temp = sin($delta_lat/2.0)**2 + cos($lat_1) * cos($lat_2) * sin($delta_lon/2.0)**2;
$distance = 3956 * 2 * atan2(sqrt($temp),sqrt(1-$temp));
return($distance);

Now that makes a little more sense. At least to me it does.

What we have done is to use the math formula and replaced the varriable with perl varriables. The math is still the same, but the formula is in the program where it can run. The "sin, cos, atan and sqrt" are all math functions of perl which are used just like multiplication and subtraction.

Try the zipcode distance calculator demo

Download the zipcode distanace calculator script - you will also need the zipcode latatude and logitude text file below. There is nothing to configure, just upload the script and datafile in a directory, chmod the zipdistance.cgi to 0755 and it should work.

I will warn you that opening a 1 meg file is not the most efficient use of resources, but I am providing the simplest way to calculte the distance and not necessisarily the most efficient. The most efficeient would be to use 40,000 individual files and only open the 2 files you need, but that would be a mess to download and install. You should also realize these are straight line distances and not driving distance, but it is still an accurate way to sort by distance.

Zipcode Lookups

Zipcode lookups are simple, simple simple. You basically have a chart and return the value that matches the zipcode in the chart. But here we use perl to read the chart and tell us the answer.

The program is almost identical to the zipcode distance calculator, but without all the math. Just a simple read the file and return the match.

Using the text file zipcodes.txt, the program will open the file and find the line with the matching zipcode and print the data.

Zipcode Lookup for PERL Demo

Download Zipcode Lookup for PERL - You will also need the text file below for zipcodes with city and state. There is nothing to configure, just upload the script and datafile in a directory, chmod the ziplookup.cgi to 0755 and it should work.

The same priciple can be applied to specify a city and lookup the zipcode for that city. Just tweak the program to match a different field and you have a lookup by city.

Databases - These are single files pipe delimited with 40,000+ lines. Each is just over 1 meg, so using them efficiently will require breaking them into smaller files. They are probably not the most up to date but a great starting point.

US Zipcodes with Latatude and Longitude

US Zipcodes with State and City

These zipcode tools are as simple as they get. But it will give you what you need to understand how the tools work and how they can be utilized in your own programs.