Locator objects create geometry for nonspatial descriptions of locations. An address locator is a particular type of locator that creates geometry for text descriptions representing addresses. This process is commonly called geocoding.
Types of address locators
Address locators can be stored on disk or in a file, personal, or ArcSDE geodatabase. Address locators can also be used to create GeocodeServer objects that are served using ArcGIS Server. The following are the two main types of ESRIAddressLocator objects:
ESRIFDOAddressLocator objects use Feature Data Objects (FDO) data sources, such as geodatabase feature classes and shapefiles, as reference data.
AGSAddressLocator objects are locators that represent GeocodeServer objects retrieved from ArcGIS Server.
Address locator styles
There are a number of different address locator styles. Choosing the right one requires knowing what type of reference data you have and in what format your addresses will be. For example, you can use the U.S. Streets with Zone address locator style for street centerline data containing left and right address ranges, directionals, street names, street types, and left and right ZIP Codes. If you want to geocode U.S. ZIP Code data, you can use the 5-digit ZIP address locator style for creating a ZIP Code address locator based on a ZIP Code point reference feature class.
Additional information stored by address locators
An address locator also contains information on how an address is standardized, searching methods for possible matches, and what output information of a match is returned. You can redistribute address locators by copying and pasting the address locators onto a different workspace or network.
