Using Google maps API v3 how do I get LatLng with a given address?

If a user inputs an address, I want to convert to the equivalent LatLng.

I've read the documentation, and I think I can use the Geocoder class to do this, but can't figure out how to implement it.

Thanks for any help!

Solution 1:

There is a pretty good example on https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/examples/geocoding-simple

To shorten it up a little:

geocoder = new google.maps.Geocoder();

function codeAddress() {

    //In this case it gets the address from an element on the page, but obviously you  could just pass it to the method instead
    var address = document.getElementById( 'address' ).value;

    geocoder.geocode( { 'address' : address }, function( results, status ) {
        if( status == google.maps.GeocoderStatus.OK ) {

            //In this case it creates a marker, but you can get the lat and lng from the location.LatLng
            map.setCenter( results[0].geometry.location );
            var marker = new google.maps.Marker( {
                map     : map,
                position: results[0].geometry.location
            } );
        } else {
            alert( 'Geocode was not successful for the following reason: ' + status );
        }
    } );
}

Solution 2:

I don't think location.LatLng is working, however this works:

results[0].geometry.location.lat(), results[0].geometry.location.lng()

Found it while exploring Get Lat Lon source code.

Solution 3:

If you need to do this on the backend you can use the following URL structure:

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?address=[STREET_ADDRESS]&key=[YOUR_API_KEY]

Sample PHP code using curl:

$curl = curl_init();

curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_URL, 'https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?address=' . rawurlencode($address) . '&key=' . $api_key);

curl_setopt ($curl, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);

$json = curl_exec($curl);

curl_close ($curl);

$obj = json_decode($json);

See additional documentation for more details and expected json response.

The docs provide sample output and will assist you in getting your own API key in order to be able to make requests to the Google Maps Geocoding API.