GeoNames Forum

I have loaded geonames into my own Postgres database but the following query returns no results

select * from geoname where country = 'UK' order by random() LIMIT 1

However the query works when I use 'US' or 'CA' as the country parameter. Why is 'UK' not returning anything?

The 'country code' for the UK, is actually GB

select * from geoname where country = 'GB' order by random() LIMIT 1

Possibly confusion when the standard was devised, GB is short for Great Britain which is often confused with United Kingdom. When defining country top level domains, undid this mistake and switched to the more understandable .uk (.gb domains are not used)

Did you try GB?

allCountries data uses ISO 2 lett country codes (I'm guessing that's what you import into your PostgreSQL)

From countryInfo:
Code:

 #ISO	ISO3	ISO-Numeric	fips	Country	Capital	Area(in sq km)	Population	Continent	tld	CurrencyCode	CurrencyName	Phone	Postal Code Format	Postal Code Regex	Languages	geonameid	neighbours	EquivalentFipsCode
 GB	GBR	826	UK	United Kingdom	London	244820	62348447	EU	.uk	GBP	Pound	44	@# #@@|@## #@@|@@# #@@|@@## #@@|@#@ #@@|@@#@ #@@|GIR0AA	^(([A-Z]\d{2}[A-Z]{2})|([A-Z]\d{3}[A-Z]{2})|([A-Z]{2}\d{2}[A-Z]{2})|([A-Z]{2}\d{3}[A-Z]{2})|([A-Z]\d[A-Z]\d[A-Z]{2})|([A-Z]{2}\d[A-Z]\d[A-Z]{2})|(GIR0AA))$	en-GB,cy-GB,gd	2635167	IE

rg_it wrote:

allCountries data uses ISO 2 lett country codes (I'm guessing that's what you import into your PostgreSQL)

From countryInfo:
Code:
 #ISO  ISO3	ISO-Numeric	fips	Country	Capital	.....
 GB	GBR	826	UK	United Kingdom	London ....

I found 'UK' in column `fips` not in `country`.

I also don't find 'UK' in 'alternateNames'.

Maybe you'll better search un Ukraine?

Exactly try GB not Uk.

Wow, I did not know that "GB" is "UK" before, maybe other place mistake is because of the same reason for me. thanks