State and Zip Code Validation in Address Searches
Understanding address search behavior with incorrect location parameters
When using Shovels' API for address searches, it's important to understand that state and zip code parameters are not validated as part of geo_id resolution. If you provide an incorrect state or zip code when searching for addresses, you won't receive an explicit error message. Instead, the API will return an empty result set (null items), indicating no matching address was found. This behavior is by design to accommodate variations in how addresses might be recorded across different jurisdictions. For the most reliable results, we recommend providing as accurate address information as possible, particularly focusing on street name, number, and city. If you're consistently getting empty results for addresses you believe should exist in our system, double-check that you're using the correct state and zip code information. Our system uses multiple address verification sources including the National Address Dataset, Open Address dataset, Simple Maps, and ESRI to ensure the highest possible accuracy in address matching.