City County Database Lookups

Designing and setting up a city county database lookup script on your website doesn't have to be difficult. Using PHP and MYSQL is probably the simplest route to go since most hosting services already have them available. For those using Windows-type hosting the basic setup would be similar but the database and scripting language will be different.

First and foremost you need to obtain a database of cities and counties for use on your website. Surprisingly, this can be the hardest part of the process if you don't know where to look. If you already have a database of cities and counties you need to import it into a MYSQL database if you haven't already. Everyone else will need to download a city county database of their own and upload it to their server.

Most databases you buy should have at least the following:

City Name
County Name
State
State Abbreviation

If you think you'd like to do more advanced processing you can find city data that includes:

Zip Code
Latitude
Longitude

Expect to pay a bit more for the extra data. Zip codes will let you do more advanced searches including zip code lookups. The latitude and longitude will allow you to perform radius searches and distance calculations on your data.

Next you need to write or acquire a script to do all of the lookups for you. For those people that don't know how to write PHP code or just don't want to bother you can either buy a pre-made script or have someone write it for you using a site like GetAFreelancer.com.

Adding a city county database to your website will let you tailor data to the needs of your visitors allowing them to only display the information that is specific to their general location. This is especially useful when providing information for local businesses and services.

By: James Kingston

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

To download your own city county database or a cities database you can visit us-databases.com