bobalien wrote in php

zip codes

i'm doing a project where i need to measure distances between zip codes; en route to a solution i stumbled upon a couple of handy resources that i figured i'd pass along:

http://www.zend.com/codex.php?id=1486&single=1
a class used to do various zipcode calculations such as distance and finding the zip codes within range of another zip code
take a look at the class to see how he wants your tables and fields named for the state and zip code database tables

http://www.cfdynamics.com/cfdynamics/zipbase/index.cfm
zipbase - datbase of zip codes with lat & long info, state info, etc. available in a text file and an access datbase
i used the textfile and in mysql said:
mysql> LOAD DATA LOCAL INFILE 'c:/ZIP_CODES.txt'
-> INTO TABLE zip_code
-> FIELDS TERMINATED BY ',' ENCLOSED BY '"'
-> LINES TERMINATED BY '\r\n';

http://27.org/isocountrylist/usps_states_list.sql
SQL file for creating a states table (i believe in the zipcode class, he wants the states table called "state")

i used that to make a silly little app to test some of the features of the class: 

<?php

	$link = mysql_connect('server', 'user', 'pass')
		or die('Could not connect: '.mysql_error());
	
	mysql_select_db('zipcodes') or die('Could not connect to db.');

	
	include 'classes/class.zipcode_class.php';
	
	$zc = new zipcode_class;
	
	$zips = array("0","0");
	
	foreach($zips as $key => $zip){
		$field = 'zip'.($key+1);
		if(isset($_REQUEST[$field])){
			if(is_numeric($_REQUEST[$field])){
				$zips[$key] = $_REQUEST[$field];	
			}
		}
	}
	
	

?>
<form action="<?=$_SERVER['PHP_SELF'];?>" method="GET">
<input type="text" name="zip1" value="<?=$zips[0];?>" /> <input type="text" name="zip2" value="<?=$zips[1];?>" /> <input type="submit" />

</form>

<?
	foreach($zips as $key => $zip){
		if($zip){
			echo "<ul>";
			echo "<strong>$zip:</strong>";
			$details = $zc->get_zip_details($zip);
			if(!empty($details)){
				foreach($details as $key => $value){
					echo "<li><strong>$key:</strong> $value</li>";
				}
			}
			echo "</ul>";
		}
	}
?>
<br/>
<?
	if($zips[0] && $zips[1]){
		echo "Distance: ".$zc->get_distance($zips[0], $zips[1]);	
	}
?>


oh, and i found this http://centricle.com/tools/html-entities/ to convert app code into HTML special chars



crossposted in php mysql & bobalien

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