Geocoding is the process of transforming a description of a location—such as a pair of coordinates, an address, or a name of a place—to a location on the earth's surface. You can geocode by entering one location description at a time or by providing a table of many locations. The resulting output are geographic features with attributes, which can be used for mapping or spatial analysis. With geocoded addresses, you can spatially display the address locations and begin to recognize patterns within the information.
If you have a table of 125,000 addresses or less, the ArcGIS Online geocoding tools will work. ArcGIS Online uses credits, which are allocated to you as a member of the UC San Diego ArcGIS Online organization. You are provided a default number of credits (5,000). You can calculate how many credits you will use to geocode using the credits overview. Reach out to the UCSD Esri Site License manager or GIS Librarian if you need additional credits.
If you have sensitive data with HIPA or PII information, you will want to use one of the other options.
If you have a table between 250,000 and 2 million addresses, come to the Data & GIS Lab to use the Data Cruncher Machine. This machine has access to Esri Streemap Premium data, which includes address locators that will leverage the power of the computer to geocode the addresses locally.
This option is a good option to use if you have sensitive data, that contains PII.
What is the difference between the new locators and the classic locators?
If you have a list of 2 million addresses or greater, reach out to the GIS Librarian to discuss options about using Library resources.
