Extracting Zip codes/City/State

[Robert Frank]

I would like to extract the actual zip codes of the US
with the appropriate city and state from Mappoint. How
can I accomplish that?. I am a VB developer, but I have
not seen any documentation on where to find this kind of
data within Mappoint 2002. Please help.

Thanks

Robert

[Tinker]

There is extensive developer documentation in the MapPoint 2002 Help file as
well as on MSDN at
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/mappoint/ht
ml/BIZAboutProgramming.asp. There is also some good information on MP2k
Magazine (www.mp2kmag.com).

"Robert Frank" <rfr...@hollywoodhc.com> wrote in message
news:0a6001c1145f$894e1910$97e62ecf@tkmsftngxs04...

[Ted Boren]

There's unfortunately no perfect answer that does exactly
what you've asked, but depending on your needs you might
try one or more of the following:

A) If just having a zip code list (without states or
cities) is acceptable, just do a data map by zip code of
any of the US demographics that ship with the product
(population or area for example). Then right click on the
data set in the legend and chhose "export to Excel". This
will give you a list of zip codes in the US (plus the
demographic data, which you can delete). This would be the
fastest--less than 2-3 minutes to do this.

B) If having a list of zip codes and states (without
cities) is acceptable, do a demographic data map as
described above. But instead of exporting the whole data
set, draw a freeform polygon around a single state, then
right click on the polygon and choose "export to Excel".
This will give you a list of all zip codes whose center
lies within the polygon (so you don't have to be super-
precise when drawing the polygon). Repeat for every state
you want. This will take longer than (A)--probably 1-3
minutes per state. (If you find that you need visual
confirmation that all zip codes have been selected, you
could create territories based on zip codes, 1 territory
per state, then export the territory definition. Let me
know if you want details on that.)

C) If having a list of zip codes within major metro areas
(without states or smaller cities) is acceptable, then do
a _multiple symbol_ demographic map by zip code (use the
smallest icon you can) on top of a _shaded area_
demographic map by metro area (use the "rainbow" color
ramp to help distinguish betw. areas). This will give you
the visual boundaries of major metro areas. Next, draw a
freeform polygon around a single metro area, then right
click on the polygon and choose "export to Excel". This
will give you a list of all zip codes whose center lies
within the polygon (so you don't have to be super-precise
when drawing the polygon). Repeat for every metro area you
want. This will take longer than (A) or (B)--probably 2-3
minutes per metro area--and won't include zip codes
outside major metro areas. Also, the metro areas will
obviously include more than one municipality, so the zip
codes won't be associated with exactly the right city.

Hopefully one or a combination of these methods will work
for you. Good luck!

Ted Boren
Usability Engineer
MS Geography

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[Robert Frank]

Ted,

I appreciate your explanations, but in my case they will
not work because my application is based on City,State,
Zip. Thinking out of the box -- where does MS get their
data from? Can I acquire the same data (only city, state,
zip)?

My problem is that my current master zip code database has
zip codes that are not in Mappoint. So I want to make
Mappoint my master Database. Therefore, I need the city,
state, zip for all the US, so my application can take the
territories that have been created in Mappoint and compare
to the master file in my application.

If you have any more info to pass on, please let me know.

Thanks

RMF

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