Getting Drive Distance in Terms of Miles

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Getting Drive Distance in Terms of Miles

rjjh78

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Points: 2784
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October 9, 2018 at 12:10 pm

#370083

I am curious to learn the best way to determine Distance for an application/Database I am developing. Is there a standard database I need to purchase or download containing all Zip Codes and create a calculation to determine distance? Or is there some kind of API/Plug-In I should use for Google maps?
Looking to learn and understand best practices; many thanks in advance!
February 5, 2021 at 5:09 am

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Sue_H SSC Guru Points: 90860 More actions · Answer 1

rjjh78 - Tuesday, October 9, 2018 12:10 PM
I am curious to learn the best way to determine Distance for an application/Database I am developing. Is there a standard database I need to purchase or download containing all Zip Codes and create a calculation to determine distance? Or is there some kind of API/Plug-In I should use for Google maps?
Looking to learn and understand best practices; many thanks in advance!

No idea what is the "best" and that's something you most likely will need to determine...as in what is best for your needs.
Google, Bing, Mapquest and some others all have distance APIs. They offer some additional info - distances were available in a couple of those listed that I remember. They all have some type of licensing. But that's one avenue that you may want to check. Just do a search on distance API and you should be able to gather some information on at least a few.

Sue

Steve Jones - SSC Editor SSC Guru Points: 734434 More actions · Answer 2

If you want driving, you want an API of some sort. Roads aren't easily calculated in SQL without lots of data. If you just have zip codes, you'll get straight line distance, which may or may not be OK. Even then, you need mapping to let you know the long/lat of each zip.

There is this script, which might help: http://www.sqlservercentral.com/scripts/Miscellaneous/30878/

Spindrift Ten Centuries Points: 1227 More actions · Answer 3

I've worked with Google Maps API, utlizing SSIS and a script component - this method of deriving driving distances works pretty well and is also quite robust in regards of incomplete / faulty address data.