How to make and autocomplete address field with google maps api?

Question

Using Google Maps API and JQuery I would like to have an Address field that when typing it will autocomplete the address entered there. How this could be achieved?

Answer 1

I really doubt it--google maps API is great for geocoding known addresses, but it generally return data that is suitable for autocomplete-style operations. Nevermind the challenge of not hitting the API in such a way as to eat up your geocoding query limit very quickly.

Answer 2

Drifting a bit, but it would be relatively easy to autofill the US City/State or CA City/Provence when the user enters her postal code using a lookup table.

Here's how you could do it if you could force people to bend to your will:

1. User enters: postal (zip) code

   You fill: state, city (province, for Canada)

2. User starts to enter: streetname

   You: autofill

3. You display: a range of allowed address numbers

   User: enters the number

Done.

Here's how it is natural for people to do it:

1. User enters: address number

   You: do nothing

2. User starts to enter: street name

   You: autofill, drawing from a massive list of every street in the country

3. User enters: city

   You: autofill

4. User enters: state/provence

   You: is it worth autofilling a few chars?

5. You: autofill postal (zip) code, if you can (because some codes straddle cities).

---

Now you know why people charge $$$ to do this. :)

For the street address, consider there are two parts: numeric and streetname. If you have the zip code, then you can narrow down the available streets, but most people enter the numeric part first, which is backwa