Best Zip Code Plugin for Ruby

Question

I need to find the city and state from a zip code. Does anyone know a good plugin/API that I can use to do this?

Answer 1

http://snipplr.com/view/11559/retrieve-city-state-and-zip-info-from-google-geocoding-service-by-passing-in-a--zipcode/

Answer 2

See Jason's answer. It works nicely.

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The problem is that the USPS doesn't allow bulk downloads of their zip-code lists unless you pay for it. Google's API, which is used in the gem mentioned by Splashlin, no longer seems to support the city and state, instead it now returns the area code:

require 'open-uri'
require 'json'

json = JSON::parse(open('http://maps.google.com/maps/geo?q=852581').read)
puts json
# >> {"name"=>"852581", "Status"=>{"code"=>602, "request"=>"geocode"}}

This page shows some ways you could roll your own. The sources of the data might not be current though:

http://www.ruby-forum.com/topic/48815

Answer 3

gem install geokit

In IRB:

require 'geokit'
geo = GeoKit::Geocoders::MultiGeocoder.multi_geocoder('90210')
if geo.success
  geo.state # => CA
  geo.city  # => Beverly Hills
end