Hi, There is a database available which maps post codes to grid references. This is controlled by the Royal Mail.
See http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/jump2?mediaId=400088&catId=400084 This may also be interesting: http://www.jibble.org/ukpostcodes/ In case you don't know, UK post codes consist of between 5 and seven characters which are in four parts with increasing resolution: City/Area Code (one or two letters) District (one or two digits) Sector (one digit) Unit (two letters) See http://www.equibrand.co.uk/postcodes.html They are usually written with a space between the District and Sector. Eg: W1 2AA MK6 3AB SN25 1DD This structure means you can easily give a central location for a partial postcode, ie right truncated to the sector, district or just the city. Hope this helps, Andy > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: 09 January 2006 13:12 > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Cc: MySQL List > Subject: Re: working w/UK postcodes > > > I need to do a search query on the columns called > > > > Name of business "the name of the business" > > Town "Local town or city name" > > Postcode " this is the same as your zip code" > > Category "this is type of business ie dress shop bakers" > > XY "this is the table of geo address maped by postcode" > > > > I need the search to give me acurate results by the above fields. > > > > Example: a user is searching Heywood postcode ol10 1jb and > > category hotel, > > We need to see the nearest hotel to that post code > > and then the next nearest and so on up to 24 hotels > > > > > > Is there way to query this in the same manner one would do it with > > US zipcodes? > > The only effective way to do this is with geographic coordinates (your > XY, I guess). While US zip codes _generally_ increase east to west and > _usually_ have a numeric difference somewhat related to their geographic > distance, this isn't always true. I know of two "island" zip codes > (unrelated to those that surround it) in New York State. > > -- > MySQL General Mailing List > For list archives: http://lists.mysql.com/mysql > To unsubscribe: http://lists.mysql.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED] -- MySQL General Mailing List For list archives: http://lists.mysql.com/mysql To unsubscribe: http://lists.mysql.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]
