GeoNames Forum

The API documentation for http://www.geonames.org/export/geonames-search.html says that its possible to search within a bounding box defined as east,west,north,south which is a float. However, I cannot understand how this might be used. Does east correspond to a lat,lng which marks the east point or is it something else ? Can someone please provide some hints on how to use the bounding box feature of the Geonames Search API ?

Hi davidpotter

A bounding box is a spherical rectangle, defined by the westernmost and easternmost longitudes and the northernmost and southernmost latitudes, all four in decimal degrees. Spherical because the earth is a sphere (or better, an ellipsoid), the latitude circles are parallel whereas the longitude circles (the meridians) are not.

As a sample look at the bounding box of Switzerland, if the rectangle does not show up, hover the mouse-pointer over the red [One]. >>>
http://www.geonames.org/2658434/switzerland.html

May be my earlier explanations will help you with the definition of your search algorithm >>>
http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/4313.page#12586
…I see, your inquiry is a copy/paste from this thread !

And this one, the last entry >>>
http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/1553.page#10304

Cheers,
Urs