UK Postcode data

[Durbs]

I believe that the UK PAF file is (hopefully) to be released in April but i'm after some of the info now to get an app ready for it.

I remember a while back someone had posted about that Wikileaks release of postcode data, has anyone used it? And does anyone have a linky to my best bet for useable data for the time being - i.e. has anyone seen a tweaked or verified version of that data since?

I'm only after to postcode/Lat Long data, don't need any accuracy beyond a couple of miles for this app.

Ta.

[Durbs]

S'alright, just found the original uk-post-codes-2009.bz2 file i'd downloaded when the original thread was posted, looks like it contains what i need.

But if anyone has heard any news on the impending 'real' data release as this app needs to be kosher so cannot use the hooky data....

[Sockpuppet]

If it needs to be kosha use a service like Postcode Anywhere.

[Durbs]

If it needs to be kosha use a service like Postcode Anywhere.

It geo-location for classifieds i.e 'show all within 10 miles of my house' so the number of individual lookups involved in a single search makes something like that prohibitively costly.

Have used them before for other stuff though like lookups on a store shipping address form and its a very good service.

[MrMark]

I remember a while back someone had posted about that Wikileaks release of postcode data, has anyone used it?

Ta.

I used it for testing purposes, but soon found out that the rumours were true ie the data set had been doctored with random false data, in the eventuality that the database was copied, as indeed it was by Wikileaks.

[MrMark]

This link may be of use (don't know how comprehensive their database is though)(

http://www.freethepostcode.org/

[NickFitz]

It isn't the PAF data (which contains all the addresses in the UK) that's being released, it's the OS Postcode location data.

One option is to use Yahoo!'s GeoPlanet location data, which is free to download. That includes UK postcodes (and a lot of other stuff - it contains something like six million specific locations). The postcode is mapped to a WOEID (Where on Earth identifier) which can then be used to query Y!'s GeoPlanet services if you want to extract things like town and county names as well as locations. Although the initial data download is pretty big, it's all well documented at the YDN GeoPlanet site.

[Durbs]

One option is to use Yahoo!'s GeoPlanet location data, which is free to download. That includes UK postcodes (and a lot of other stuff - it contains something like six million specific locations).

Just downloaded that and loaded the geoplanet_places_7.4.1.tsv file into SQL.

Once i've removed the stuff i dont want, it leaves me with 1932019 UK postcodes and their associated WOEID. Now i just need to work out how to fill in the lat/long fields in the DB (dont want to use external service lookups as part of the app) from those WOEID's which will probably involve reading some sort of documents

Guess i can write a little app to loop through these and populate the lat long fields via lookup as a quick Google suggests the lat/long is an attribute of a WOEID?

Looking like a potential solution though. Ta.

[Spacecadet]

I'm getting serious Deja Vu on this thread!

The PAF file contains the geo location in Northings and Eastings, youcan either convert them to Lat Long - there is info on how to do this on the web, or leaving them in their native format, which, for what you want to do will probably be fine. You just need to use different (although maybe simpler) calculations when working out the distance.

IIRC accuracy will be down to ~100m

If I was you I would save doing any major work until you actually get the file, you might be wasting your effort.

[NickFitz]

BUMP!

...because the OS datasets are now available