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wdchristensen
Specialist
Specialist

Inaccurate Zip Code Mapping

Hi Everyone,

I am having an issue with the map visualization (QS June 201p Patch 2) where it is placing zip codes in incorrect locations. In the example app attached, Qlik Sense is putting zip code points in the correct county but the wrong city. For example, Google and the USPS agree that 75014 is in Irving Texas and for some reason QS is showing it as Dallas Texas proper (approximately 15 miles away). In our production environment, we have disabled all map charts to avoid the possibility that the business will take actions based on inaccurate and misleading data. My goal is to accurately represent the data so I can put these great looking visualizations back in our production environment. It is very possible this is a user error so I would welcome any suggestions on how to fix this issue. I am currently using the following formula:

[ZipCode]& if(len(County)>0, ',' & County) & if(len(State)>0, ',' & State) & if(len(CountryCode)>0, ',' & CountryCode) as Zip_Location

based on the “Qlik Sense Maps - Improving Location Accuracy (Video)”

https://community.qlik.com/t5/Qlik-Design-Blog/Qlik-Sense-Maps-Improving-Location-Accuracy-Video/ba-...

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1 Solution

Accepted Solutions
Patric_Nordstrom
Employee
Employee

Google, USPS and Qlik use different sources for the location information and in some cases they show different results.

As for 75014, it seems to be non-area zip code. A large portion of zip codes are assigned to post boxes and organizations and not a physical area. These zips are more volatile and "move" more often than physical areas.

Thanks,

Patric

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6 Replies
Patric_Nordstrom
Employee
Employee

Google, USPS and Qlik use different sources for the location information and in some cases they show different results.

As for 75014, it seems to be non-area zip code. A large portion of zip codes are assigned to post boxes and organizations and not a physical area. These zips are more volatile and "move" more often than physical areas.

Thanks,

Patric

wdchristensen
Specialist
Specialist
Author

Thanks for the explanation  That makes sense, but how did you come to that determination? Is there a list that I can use identify and potentially exclude from my chart mapping? 

Patric_Nordstrom
Employee
Employee

It's not easy, for instance the Google response returns only a single point, normally Google returns a zip code area.

You could use the QGA connector operations NamedPointLookup and NamedAreaLookup to get a first sort of what is covered and which form, area, point or both.

Thanks,

Patric

wdchristensen
Specialist
Specialist
Author

I found the download (https://us-d.demo.qlik.com/download/) but I was wondering if it is going to have an additional cost. I am currently using Qlik Sense Enterprise June 2019 Patch 2. The download looks almost identical to NPrinting and I know that NPrinting has an additional cost. I don't want to install something just to find out at the end I can't actually use it. 

Patric_Nordstrom
Employee
Employee

GeoAnalytics is an add-on just like NPrinting.

But for many customers it's included, depends on your license model.

Please talk to your sales rep, (could also check your lef key for the GeoAnalytics attribute).

Thanks,

Patric

wdchristensen
Specialist
Specialist
Author

Thanks Patric, we are reaching out to our sales rep to see how much it would cost. Since our only use case now is mapping zip codes, hopefully it is included in our license model. I appreciate your help!