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localize Function

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localize Function

When data is not available in tabular form the localize function may be used to locate (and then name) a geometry. The localize function is often used within an IMPORT STREETS statement to populate the L_REGION and R_REGION fields of a street.

Syntax

Alchemy
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localize(expr, %geom);

Nomenclature

expr The name of a localizer, created with the CREATE LOCALIZER statement
%geom Required. An Alchemy identifier used to reference the geometry

Returns

For a localizer covering n region levels, localize will return an array with 2*n elements containing the region names for the left- and right-hand sides of the geometry. See the example, below.

Example

First we create a nested localizer using the CREATE LOCALIZER statement:

Alchemy
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CREATE LOCALIZER NESTED "myRegions"
  ON (%sbrb_name, %town_name, %cnty_name)
  FROM ("path_to\suburbs", "path_to\towns", "path_to\counties");

We then use the localize function to populate the region fields of the street:

Alchemy
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IMPORT STREETS {
        $regnames = localize("myRegions", %geom);
}
[
        ...
        L_REGION 1 = $regnames[0],
        R_REGION 1 = $regnames[1],
        L_REGION 2 = $regnames[2],
        R_REGION 2 = $regnames[3],
        ...
]
FROM "path_to\street_data";
Caution note Caution

The region types must be in ascending order (most specific first) when working with a localizer. In this example the suburb (smallest and most specific region type) is specified first, followed by the town and then the county. A smaller region number indicates a more specific region.

See Also

  • lookup - used to create a lookup table (analogous to a Map-Key structure), which may be used to identify regions from tabular data