+# Search queries
-## Search
-Nominatim indexes named (or numbered) features with the OSM data set and a subset of other unnamed features (pubs, hotels, churches, etc)
+The search API allows you to look up a location from a textual description
+or address. Nominatim supports structured and free-form search queries.
-Search terms are processed first left to right and then right to left if that fails.
+The search query may also contain
+[special phrases](https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Nominatim/Special_Phrases)
+which are translated into specific OpenStreetMap (OSM) tags (e.g. Pub => `amenity=pub`).
+This can be used to narrow down the kind of objects to be returned.
-Both searches will work: [pilkington avenue, birmingham](//nominatim.openstreetmap.org/search?q=pilkington+avenue,birmingham), [birmingham, pilkington avenue](//nominatim.openstreetmap.org/search?q=birmingham,+pilkington+avenue)
+!!! warning
+ Special phrases are not suitable to query all objects of a certain type in an
+ area. Nominatim will always just return a collection of the best matches. To
+ download OSM data by object type, use the [Overpass API](https://overpass-api.de/).
-(Commas are optional, but improve performance by reducing the complexity of the search.)
+## Parameters
-Where house numbers have been defined for an area they should be used: [135 pilkington avenue, birmingham](//nominatim.openstreetmap.org/search?q=135+pilkington+avenue,+birmingham)
-
-### Special Keywords
-Various keywords are translated into searches for specific osm tags (e.g. Pub => amenity=pub). A current list of [special phrases](https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Nominatim/Special_Phrases) processed is available.
-
-### Parameters
+The search API has the following format:
```
https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/search?<params>
- https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/search/<query>?<params>
```
-* `format=[html|xml|json|jsonv2|geojson|geocodejson]`
+The search term may be specified with two different sets of parameters:
+
+* `q=<query>`
+
+ Free-form query string to search for.
+ Free-form queries are processed first left-to-right and then right-to-left if that fails. So you may search for
+ [pilkington avenue, birmingham](https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/search?q=pilkington+avenue,birmingham) as well as for
+ [birmingham, pilkington avenue](https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/search?q=birmingham,+pilkington+avenue).
+ Commas are optional, but improve performance by reducing the complexity of the search.
+
+* `amenity=<name and/or type of POI>`
+* `street=<housenumber> <streetname>`
+* `city=<city>`
+* `county=<county>`
+* `state=<state>`
+* `country=<country>`
+* `postalcode=<postalcode>`
+
+ Alternative query string format split into several parameters for structured requests.
+ Structured requests are faster but are less robust against alternative
+ OSM tagging schemas. **Do not combine with** `q=<query>` **parameter**.
+
+Both query forms accept the additional parameters listed below.
- * Output format
- * defaults to `html`
+### Output format
+* `format=[xml|json|jsonv2|geojson|geocodejson]`
+
+See [Place Output Formats](Output.md) for details on each format. (Default: jsonv2)
+
+!!! note
+ The Nominatim service at
+ [https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org](https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org)
+ has a different default behaviour for historical reasons. When the
+ `format` parameter is omitted, the request will be forwarded to the Web UI.
* `json_callback=<string>`
- * Wrap json output in a callback function (JSONP) i.e. `<string>(<json>)`
+Wrap JSON output in a callback function ([JSONP](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JSONP)) i.e. `<string>(<json>)`.
+Only has an effect for JSON output formats.
-* `accept-language=<browser language string>`
+### Output details
- * Preferred language order for showing search results, overrides the value specified in the "Accept-Language" HTTP header.
- * Either uses standard rfc2616 accept-language string or a simple comma separated list of language codes.
+* `addressdetails=[0|1]`
-* `q=<query>`
+Include a breakdown of the address into elements. (Default: 0)
- * Query string to search for.
- * Alternatively can be entered as:
- * `street=<housenumber> <streetname>`
- * `city=<city>`
- * `county=<county>`
- * `state=<state>`
- * `country=<country>`
- * `postalcode=<postalcode>`
-
- **(experimental)** Alternative query string format for structured requests.
-Structured requests are faster and require fewer server resources. **Do not combine with `q=<query>` parameter**.
+* `extratags=[0|1]`
-* `countrycodes=<countrycode>[,<countrycode>][,<countrycode>]...`
+Include additional information in the result if available,
+e.g. wikipedia link, opening hours. (Default: 0)
- * Limit search results to a specific country (or a list of countries).
- * `<countrycode>` should be the ISO 3166-1alpha2 code, e.g. `gb` for the United Kingdom, `de` for Germany, etc.
-* `viewbox=<x1>,<y1>,<x2>,<y2>`
- * The preferred area to find search results. Any two corner points of the box are accepted in any order as long as they span a real box.
+* `namedetails=[0|1]`
-* `bounded=[0|1]`
- * defaults to 0
- * Restrict the results to only items contained with the viewbox (see above).
- * Restricting the results to the bounding box also enables searching by amenity only.
- * For example a search query of just `"[pub]"` would normally be rejected but with `bounded=1` will result in a list of items matching within the bounding box.
+Include a list of alternative names in the results. These may include
+language variants, references, operator and brand. (Default: 0)
-* `polygon=[0|1]`
- * defaults to 0
- * Output polygon outlines for items found **(deprecated, use one of the polygon_* parameters instead)**
-* `addressdetails=[0|1]`
- * defaults to 0
- * Include a breakdown of the address into elements
+### Language of results
-* `email=<valid email address>`
+* `accept-language=<browser language string>`
+
+Preferred language order for showing search results, overrides the value
+specified in the ["Accept-Language" HTTP header](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Accept-Language).
+Either use a standard RFC2616 accept-language string or a simple
+comma-separated list of language codes.
+
+### Result limitation
+
+* `countrycodes=<countrycode>[,<countrycode>][,<countrycode>]...`
+
+Limit search results to one or more countries. `<countrycode>` must be the
+[ISO 3166-1alpha2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-1_alpha-2) code,
+e.g. `gb` for the United Kingdom, `de` for Germany.
- * If you are making large numbers of request please include a valid email address or alternatively include your email address as part of the User-Agent string.
- * This information will be kept confidential and only used to contact you in the event of a problem, see [Usage Policy](https://operations.osmfoundation.org/policies/nominatim/) for more details.
+Each place in Nominatim is assigned to one country code based
+on OSM country boundaries. In rare cases a place may not be in any country
+at all, for example, in international waters.
* `exclude_place_ids=<place_id,[place_id],[place_id]`
- * If you do not want certain openstreetmap objects to appear in the search result, give a comma separated list of the place_id's you want to skip. This can be used to broaden search results. For example, if a previous query only returned a few results, then including those here would cause the search to return other, less accurate, matches (if possible)
+If you do not want certain OSM objects to appear in the search
+result, give a comma separated list of the `place_id`s you want to skip.
+This can be used to retrieve additional search results. For example, if a
+previous query only returned a few results, then including those here would
+cause the search to return other, less accurate, matches (if possible).
+
* `limit=<integer>`
- * defaults to 10
- * Limit the number of returned results.
-* `dedupe=[0|1]`
- * defaults to 1
- * Sometimes you have several objects in OSM identifying the same place or object in reality. The simplest case is a street being split in many different OSM ways due to different characteristics.
- * Nominatim will attempt to detect such duplicates and only return one match; this is controlled by the dedupe parameter which defaults to 1. Since the limit is, for reasons of efficiency, enforced before and not after de-duplicating, it is possible that de-duplicating leaves you with less results than requested.
+Limit the number of returned results. (Default: 10, Maximum: 50)
-* `debug=[0|1]`
- * defaults to 0
- * Output assorted developer debug information. Data on internals of nominatim "Search Loop" logic, and SQL queries. The output is (rough) HTML format. This overrides the specified machine readable format.
-* `polygon_geojson=1`
- * Output geometry of results in geojson format.
+* `viewbox=<x1>,<y1>,<x2>,<y2>`
-* `polygon_kml=1`
- * Output geometry of results in kml format.
+The preferred area to find search results. Any two corner points of the box
+are accepted as long as they span a real box. `x` is longitude,
+`y` is latitude.
-* `polygon_svg=1`
- * Output geometry of results in svg format.
+* `bounded=[0|1]`
+
+When a viewbox is given, restrict the result to items contained within that
+viewbox (see above). When `viewbox` and `bounded=1` are given, an amenity
+only search is allowed. Give the special keyword for the amenity in square
+brackets, e.g. `[pub]` and a selection of objects of this type is returned.
+There is no guarantee that the result is complete. (Default: 0)
+
+
+### Polygon output
+
+* `polygon_geojson=1`
+* `polygon_kml=1`
+* `polygon_svg=1`
* `polygon_text=1`
- * Output geometry of results as a WKT.
+
+Output geometry of results as a GeoJSON, KML, SVG or WKT. Only one of these
+options can be used at a time. (Default: 0)
* `polygon_threshold=0.0`
- * defaults to 0.0
- * Simplify the output geometry before returning. The parameter is the
- tolerance in degrees with which the geometry may differ from the original
- geometry. Topology is preserved in the result.
-* `extratags=1`
- * Include additional information in the result if available, e.g. wikipedia link, opening hours.
+Return a simplified version of the output geometry. The parameter is the
+tolerance in degrees with which the geometry may differ from the original
+geometry. Topology is preserved in the result. (Default: 0.0)
+
+### Other
+
+* `email=<valid email address>`
+
+If you are making large numbers of request please include an appropriate email
+address to identify your requests. See Nominatim's [Usage Policy](https://operations.osmfoundation.org/policies/nominatim/) for more details.
+
+* `dedupe=[0|1]`
+
+Sometimes you have several objects in OSM identifying the same place or
+object in reality. The simplest case is a street being split into many
+different OSM ways due to different characteristics. Nominatim will
+attempt to detect such duplicates and only return one match unless
+this parameter is set to 0. (Default: 1)
+
+* `debug=[0|1]`
+
+Output assorted developer debug information. Data on internals of Nominatim's
+"Search Loop" logic, and SQL queries. The output is (rough) HTML format.
+This overrides the specified machine readable format. (Default: 0)
-* `namedetails=1`
- * Include a list of alternative names in the results.
- * These may include language variants, references, operator and brand.
-### Examples
+## Examples
-##### XML with polygon points
-* [https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/search?q=135+pilkington+avenue,+birmingham&format=xml&polygon=1&addressdetails=1](https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/search?q=135+pilkington+avenue,+birmingham&format=xml&polygon=1&addressdetails=1)
-* [https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/search/gb/birmingham/pilkington%20avenue/135?format=xml&polygon=1&addressdetails=1](https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/search/gb/birmingham/pilkington%20avenue/135?format=xml&polygon=1&addressdetails=1)
-* [https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/search/135%20pilkington%20avenue,%20birmingham?format=xml&polygon=1&addressdetails=1](https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/search/135%20pilkington%20avenue,%20birmingham?format=xml&polygon=1&addressdetails=1)
+##### XML with KML polygon
+
+* [https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/search?q=135+pilkington+avenue,+birmingham&format=xml&polygon_kml=1&addressdetails=1](https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/search?q=135+pilkington+avenue,+birmingham&format=xml&polygon_kml=1&addressdetails=1)
```xml
- <searchresults timestamp="Sat, 07 Nov 09 14:42:10 +0000" querystring="135 pilkington, avenue birmingham" polygon="true">
- <place
- place_id="1620612" osm_type="node" osm_id="452010817"
- boundingbox="52.548641204834,52.5488433837891,-1.81612110137939,-1.81592094898224"
- polygonpoints="[['-1.81592098644987','52.5487429714954'],['-1.81592290792183','52.5487234624632'],...]"
- lat="52.5487429714954" lon="-1.81602098644987"
- display_name="135, Pilkington Avenue, Wylde Green, City of Birmingham, West Midlands (county), B72, United Kingdom"
- class="place" type="house">
- <house_number>135</house_number>
- <road>Pilkington Avenue</road>
- <village>Wylde Green</village>
- <town>Sutton Coldfield</town>
- <city>City of Birmingham</city>
- <county>West Midlands (county)</county>
- <postcode>B72</postcode>
- <country>United Kingdom</country>
- <country_code>gb</country_code>
- </place>
- </searchresults>
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
+<searchresults timestamp="Tue, 08 Aug 2023 15:45:41 +00:00"
+ attribution="Data © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL 1.0. http://osm.org/copyright"
+ querystring="135 pilkington avenue, birmingham"
+ more_url="https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/search?q=135+pilkington+avenue%2C+birmingham&polygon_kml=1&addressdetails=1&limit=20&exclude_place_ids=125279639&format=xml"
+ exclude_place_ids="125279639">
+ <place place_id="125279639"
+ osm_type="way"
+ osm_id="90394480"
+ lat="52.5487921"
+ lon="-1.8164308"
+ boundingbox="52.5487473,52.5488481,-1.8165130,-1.8163464"
+ place_rank="30"
+ address_rank="30"
+ display_name="135, Pilkington Avenue, Maney, Sutton Coldfield, Wylde Green, Birmingham, West Midlands Combined Authority, England, B72 1LH, United Kingdom"
+ class="building"
+ type="residential"
+ importance="9.999999994736442e-08">
+ <geokml>
+ <Polygon>
+ <outerBoundaryIs>
+ <LinearRing>
+ <coordinates>-1.816513,52.5487566 -1.816434,52.5487473 -1.816429,52.5487629 -1.8163717,52.5487561 -1.8163464,52.5488346 -1.8164599,52.5488481 -1.8164685,52.5488213 -1.8164913,52.548824 -1.816513,52.5487566</coordinates>
+ </LinearRing>
+ </outerBoundaryIs>
+ </Polygon>
+ </geokml>
+ <house_number>135</house_number>
+ <road>Pilkington Avenue</road>
+ <hamlet>Maney</hamlet>
+ <town>Sutton Coldfield</town>
+ <village>Wylde Green</village>
+ <city>Birmingham</city>
+ <ISO3166-2-lvl8>GB-BIR</ISO3166-2-lvl8>
+ <state_district>West Midlands Combined Authority</state_district>
+ <state>England</state>
+ <ISO3166-2-lvl4>GB-ENG</ISO3166-2-lvl4>
+ <postcode>B72 1LH</postcode>
+ <country>United Kingdom</country>
+ <country_code>gb</country_code>
+ </place>
+</searchresults>
```
##### JSON with SVG polygon
-[https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/search/Unter%20den%20Linden%201%20Berlin?format=json&addressdetails=1&limit=1&polygon_svg=1](https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/search/Unter%20den%20Linden%201%20Berlin?format=json&addressdetails=1&limit=1&polygon_svg=1)
+[https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/search?q=Unter%20den%20Linden%201%20Berlin&format=json&addressdetails=1&limit=1&polygon_svg=1](https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/search?q=Unter%20den%20Linden%201%20Berlin&format=json&addressdetails=1&limit=1&polygon_svg=1)
```json
- {
- "address": {
- "city": "Berlin",
- "city_district": "Mitte",
- "construction": "Unter den Linden",
- "continent": "European Union",
- "country": "Deutschland",
- "country_code": "de",
- "house_number": "1",
- "neighbourhood": "Scheunenviertel",
- "postcode": "10117",
- "public_building": "Kommandantenhaus",
- "state": "Berlin",
- "suburb": "Mitte"
- },
- "boundingbox": [
- "52.5170783996582",
- "52.5173187255859",
- "13.3975105285645",
- "13.3981599807739"
- ],
- "class": "amenity",
- "display_name": "Kommandantenhaus, 1, Unter den Linden, Scheunenviertel, Mitte, Berlin, 10117, Deutschland, European Union",
- "importance": 0.73606775332943,
- "lat": "52.51719785",
- "licence": "Data \u00a9 OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL 1.0. https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright",
- "lon": "13.3978352028938",
- "osm_id": "15976890",
- "osm_type": "way",
- "place_id": "30848715",
- "svg": "M 13.397511 -52.517283599999999 L 13.397829400000001 -52.517299800000004 13.398131599999999 -52.517315099999998 13.398159400000001 -52.517112099999999 13.3975388 -52.517080700000001 Z",
- "type": "public_building"
- }
+[
+ {
+ "address": {
+ "ISO3166-2-lvl4": "DE-BE",
+ "borough": "Mitte",
+ "city": "Berlin",
+ "country": "Deutschland",
+ "country_code": "de",
+ "historic": "Kommandantenhaus",
+ "house_number": "1",
+ "neighbourhood": "Friedrichswerder",
+ "postcode": "10117",
+ "road": "Unter den Linden",
+ "suburb": "Mitte"
+ },
+ "boundingbox": [
+ "52.5170798",
+ "52.5173311",
+ "13.3975116",
+ "13.3981577"
+ ],
+ "class": "historic",
+ "display_name": "Kommandantenhaus, 1, Unter den Linden, Friedrichswerder, Mitte, Berlin, 10117, Deutschland",
+ "importance": 0.8135042058306902,
+ "lat": "52.51720765",
+ "licence": "Data © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL 1.0. https://osm.org/copyright",
+ "lon": "13.397834399325466",
+ "osm_id": 15976890,
+ "osm_type": "way",
+ "place_id": 108681845,
+ "svg": "M 13.3975116 -52.5172905 L 13.397549 -52.5170798 13.397715 -52.5170906 13.3977122 -52.5171064 13.3977392 -52.5171086 13.3977417 -52.5170924 13.3979655 -52.5171069 13.3979623 -52.5171233 13.3979893 -52.5171248 13.3979922 -52.5171093 13.3981577 -52.5171203 13.398121 -52.5173311 13.3978115 -52.5173103 Z",
+ "type": "house"
+ }
+]
```
##### JSON with address details
-[https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/?format=json&addressdetails=1&q=bakery+in+berlin+wedding&format=json&limit=1](https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/?format=json&addressdetails=1&q=bakery+in+berlin+wedding&format=json&limit=1)
+[https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/search?addressdetails=1&q=bakery+in+berlin+wedding&format=jsonv2&limit=1](https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/search?addressdetails=1&q=bakery+in+berlin+wedding&format=jsonv2&limit=1)
```json
- {
- "address": {
- "bakery": "B\u00e4cker Kamps",
- "city_district": "Mitte",
- "continent": "European Union",
- "country": "Deutschland",
- "country_code": "de",
- "footway": "Bahnsteig U6",
- "neighbourhood": "Sprengelkiez",
- "postcode": "13353",
- "state": "Berlin",
- "suburb": "Wedding"
- },
- "boundingbox": [
- "52.5460929870605",
- "52.5460968017578",
- "13.3591794967651",
- "13.3591804504395"
- ],
- "class": "shop",
- "display_name": "B\u00e4cker Kamps, Bahnsteig U6, Sprengelkiez, Wedding, Mitte, Berlin, 13353, Deutschland, European Union",
- "icon": "https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/images/mapicons/shopping_bakery.p.20.png",
- "importance": 0.201,
- "lat": "52.5460941",
- "licence": "Data \u00a9 OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL 1.0. https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright",
- "lon": "13.35918",
- "osm_id": "317179427",
- "osm_type": "node",
- "place_id": "1453068",
- "type": "bakery"
- }
+[
+ {
+ "address": {
+ "ISO3166-2-lvl4": "DE-BE",
+ "borough": "Mitte",
+ "city": "Berlin",
+ "country": "Deutschland",
+ "country_code": "de",
+ "neighbourhood": "Sprengelkiez",
+ "postcode": "13347",
+ "road": "Lindower Straße",
+ "shop": "Ditsch",
+ "suburb": "Wedding"
+ },
+ "addresstype": "shop",
+ "boundingbox": [
+ "52.5427201",
+ "52.5427654",
+ "13.3668619",
+ "13.3669442"
+ ],
+ "category": "shop",
+ "display_name": "Ditsch, Lindower Straße, Sprengelkiez, Wedding, Mitte, Berlin, 13347, Deutschland",
+ "importance": 9.99999999995449e-06,
+ "lat": "52.54274275",
+ "licence": "Data © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL 1.0. http://osm.org/copyright",
+ "lon": "13.36690305710228",
+ "name": "Ditsch",
+ "osm_id": 437595031,
+ "osm_type": "way",
+ "place_id": 204751033,
+ "place_rank": 30,
+ "type": "bakery"
+ }
+]
```
##### GeoJSON
}
]
}
-```
\ No newline at end of file
+```
projects / nominatim.git / blobdiff