GeoNames Forum

I just imported the latest dumps in to a mysql database.

Looking at some data for example, Japan, I have found a lot of inconsistencies. I am only looking at data with the adm1 fcode, and a lot of entries in alternatenames does not have the isPreferredName flag set. In some cases, the isoLanguage is also unset.

What I would like to do is to retrive a list of ADM1 subdivisions for each country in their native langauge in the preferred name.

For example, I would like to retrive 山梨県, 山口県, etc by searching for the country code JP.

Finally, I would also like to retrive the subdivision type i.e like this page: http://www.geonames.org/servlet/geonames?srv=573&typeId=144

In this case, I would like to retrive the term "prefecture" from the data. I have looked in the datasets and wasn't able to find something for prefecture.

Could anyone tell me what I can do to retrive the adm1 subdivisions in the native language of the country as well as the subdivision type?

Around 11k alternatenames for Japanese entries had the language code 'ja' though they were in ascii. I have changed them to the language code 'null'.

It is rather lack of coverage or data rather then an "inconsistency" that some attributes are not filled. Please feel free to mark the preferred names as such.
The subdivision type is only available for users of the premium data subscription (or for people who do a lot of valuable contributions ...)

Best Regards

Marc