GeoNames Forum

Why is this call returning no results?

http://ws.geonames.org/search?style=FULL&lang=en&name_equals=Basel-Mulhouse&country=fr

If instead of "name_equals" I use "name" it works as expected:

http://ws.geonames.org/search?style=FULL&lang=en&name=Basel-Mulhouse&country=fr

Thanks,
Oscar

Same problem occurs with Frankfurt-Hahn.
More information:
- this problem was not happening a few months ago
- it could be related to the "-" in the middle of the names

http://ws.geonames.org/search?style=FULL&lang=en&name_equals=Frankfurt-Hahn&country=de

http://ws.geonames.org/search?style=FULL&lang=en&name=Frankfurt-Hahn&country=de

Thanks Oscar. There was a bug in how alternate names are processed by the indexer, when they included '-' in the name.

Best

Marc

Hi again Marc.

Is there another issue when the name contains a parenthesis ?

For example this search does not work:

http://ws.geonames.org/search?style=FULL&lang=en&fclass=P&name_equals=Frankfurt+%28Oder%29&country=de

Thanks!
Oscar

Oscar

You are right there is an other issue with parenthesis. On the free servers it has been fixed, on the commercial servers it will be fixed in a couple of days.

Best

Marc