Countries, States and Counties

[+Gill & Tony]

I'm writing a GSAK macro which will analyse finds on a "by-State" basis and I want to ensure that I display the right information and use the right terminology.

 

For most countries, Groundspeak stores the state name in the state field, but for some, like Switzerland, it stores something else there and the real state is in the County field. Croatia doesn't appear to have anything in the State, but does have information in the County,

 

I'm hoping people will let me know, for their own country or for countries with which they are familiar, the following information

 

1. Should I be using the State or County field

 

2. What is the singular and plural for the name of the "state"

 

For USA and Australia, I would use the state field and the correct terms are State and States.

 

Canada would use the State field and Province/Provinces. Switzerland would use the County field and Canton/Cantons

 

For other countries I need help

 

Thanks

 

Tony

[+HHL]

OK. Here we go.

 

Germany:

State = Bundesland (updated from GSAK)

States = Bundesländer (updated from GSAK)

County = Landkreis (updated from GSAK)

Counties = Landkreise (updated from GSAK)

 

Frohes Jagen

Hans

[+HHL]

Austria:

 

State = Bundesland (updated from GSAK)

States = Bundesländer (updated from GSAK)

County = Bezirk (updated from GSAK)

Counties = Bezirke (updated from GSAK)

 

Hans

[+HHL]

Sweden:

 

State = län (updated from GSAK)

States = län (updated from GSAK)

County = Kommun (updated from GSAK)

Counties = Kommuner (updated from GSAK)

 

Hans

[+FunnyNose]

I just call them 1st level administrative divisions. I believe Groundspeak uses the ISO 3166 standard. Here is good source of the divisions

I would like a macro for the 1st level administrative I have visited but it is doubtful Groundspeak will ever list the 1st level divisions for all the countries I have visited.

[+ChrisDen]

South Africa

State = Province/Provinces

County = District/Districts

 

The districts are either District Municipalities or Metropolitan Municipalities. Why they decided to call them districts and not municipalities I am not sure.

[+Harry Dolphin]

I just call them 1st level administrative divisions. I believe Groundspeak uses the ISO 3166 standard. Here is good source of the divisions

I would like a macro for the 1st level administrative I have visited but it is doubtful Groundspeak will ever list the 1st level divisions for all the countries I have visited.

 

Nah. That lists St. Pierre et Miquelon as part of France. Groundspeak lists it as a different country.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

I just call them 1st level administrative divisions. I believe Groundspeak uses the ISO 3166 standard. Here is good source of the divisions

I would like a macro for the 1st level administrative I have visited but it is doubtful Groundspeak will ever list the 1st level divisions for all the countries I have visited.

 

About a week ago I spent an hour or so working on build a dataset of countries and their first level administrative divisions using the UN Geopolitical ontology (which is what GS uses, but aligns with the ISO-3166 standard) and Geonames. I'm using it as an auto-suggest service for entering Country/State name data. I'll have to check to see if that divisions link has machine readable data I might be able to use instead.

[+Gill & Tony]

Thanks to Hans and ChrisDen for providing the data and to Funnynose for the link.

 

It is all helping me get sorted.

 

Cheers

 

Tony

[+redsox_mark]

United Kingdom

 

State=Region

States=Regions

County=County

Counties=Counties

 

Note while these names are clear there are a lot of debates about the details. The Regions are defined, though not everyone knows what exact area each covers. And there is a lot of confusion on counties; as the government keeps changing them, and there is a concept of "unitary" authority.

[+Gill & Tony]

Thanks for the UK data, redsox_mark.

 

As an aside, is there any simple way to tell whether a cache is in England or Scotland etc., rather than just "United Kingdom"? My output has the "states" listed alphabetically following the country name and I would prefer to segregate English Counties, Scottish Counties, Welsh Counties etc. Since I don't (yet) have any UK finds I'm guessing, but the region names all seem to contain the country name (South East England, Northern Scotland etc.), so I could pull the country name from that. Or is there a better way.

 

My current list of countries for which the "County" data seems more useful than the "State" data is Croatia, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Switzerland and United Kingdom. Any more I should add?

 

Thanks again

 

Tony

[+HHL]

Thanks for the UK data, redsox_mark.

 

As an aside, is there any simple way to tell whether a cache is in England or Scotland etc., rather than just "United Kingdom"? [...] and I would prefer to segregate English Counties, Scottish Counties, Welsh Counties etc. [...]

 

Just filter with these terms in GSAK's filter where tab:

 

England:

g_regex('England|Midlands|London|Yorkshire',state)

Scotland:

g_regex('Scotland',state)

Wales:

g_regex('Wales',state)

 

Frohes Jagen

Hans

Edited April 30, 2016 by HHL

[+HHL]

If your question deals with a regional NewSearch for a UK region instead of United Kingdom then use these urls:

 

England:

https://www.geocaching.com/play/search?ot=4&r=212,213,214,215,216,219,220,221,222,223&f=2&pe=1#Content

Scotland:

https://www.geocaching.com/play/search?ot=4&r=210,211&f=2&pe=1#Content

Wales:

https://www.geocaching.com/play/search?ot=4&r=217,218&f=2&pe=1#Content

 

Hans

[+Gill & Tony]

Thanks, Hans

 

Your first suggestion is what I was looking for.

 

Cheers

 

Tony

[+HHL]

Btw: I like your signature. ;-)

 

Hans

[+Gill & Tony]

Thanks, I like it too.