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Locators in the geodatabase

Locators in the geodatabase

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Note:This topic was updated for 9.3.1.

A locator is an object that you can use to convert textual descriptions of locations into geographic features. The most common locator is an address locator, which you can use to geocode addresses. See An overview of geocoding in the "Geocoding and address management" section of the help for an introduction to geocoding.

ArcSDE stores locator definitions in the Locators system table. Three main types of locators can be stored in an ArcSDE geodatabase:

Each locator style, locator, and attached locator has a number of properties that define the locator. ArcSDE stores each property of a locator as a record in the Metadata system table.

NOTE: To use an ArcSDE address locator—a geocoding service—a user must have SELECT privileges on the reference datasets and geocoding index tables used by the address locator. Only the owner of the ArcSDE dataset can grant privileges to the dataset.

For a description of the locator schema, see the topic appropriate for the DBMS you are using.

Locators in a geodatabase stored in DB2

Locators in a geodatabase in Informix

Locators in a geodatabase stored in Oracle

Locators in a geodatabase in PostgreSQL

Locators in a geodatabase in SQL Server

Geocoding rules

Address locators use a set of geocoding rules that define how addresses are parsed, standardized, and matched to the reference data used by the address locator. ArcSDE stores geocoding rules in the GCDRULES table. Each row in the GCDRULES table corresponds to a single file in a set of geocoding rules.

Beginning with ArcSDE 9.2, ArcSDE allows you to store a copy of geocoding rules inside the locator, thus making it independent of any modification made to the GCDRULES table.

See Also

  • An overview of configuring an ArcSDE geodatabase