IMPORT CITIES Statement

This statement converts GIS-formatted city data to GBFS data.

Syntax

Alchemy

IMPORT CITIES [name = %name_col] FROM "path\src_file" WHERE condition;

Nomenclature

name_col	Optional. A column within the source table containing the names of the cities.
path\src_file	Specifies the path and file containing the GIS shapefile data.
condition	A logic expression that is satisfied by a subset of the data in path\src_file. This expression, along with the WHERE keyword, is optional.

Example

The following example imports city data from a table. The (fictional) table has a column 'NAM' that contains the names of the cities.

Alchemy

IMPORT CITIES [
  name = dress(%NAM)
]
FROM "nz_cities";

Column Names

The following GBFS columns are available for population through the Alchemy IMPORT CITIES command.

Column	Description	Type	Length	Values
NAME	The name of the city, used by the GeoCoder to find a location.	Text	Variable

Tip
The city data imported by the IMPORT CITIES command is not used to draw features on the map, instead this column is used to aid the GeoCoder in finding a location.

IMPORT CITIES From CSV Files

To import cities from CSV format text files, use the following format.

Alchemy

IMPORT CITIES [name = %name, geom = wkt(%point)] FROM "csv://src_file";

Nomenclature

name	Optional. An expression referencing one or more column in the CSV source file.
geom	A column of point data stored as well known text (WKT) in the CSV source file.

Example

CSV

city_label,city_data
Telogis Town,POINT(-118.271425 34.371585)

Note
Note the formatting of our point. For Well Known Text, the location should be formatted as 'Longitude Latitude', reversing the conventional GeoBase standard of 'Latitude Longitude'. Note also the use of a space as a separator rather than a comma.

The IMPORT CITIES statement required to import data from the example CSV file shown above is:

Alchemy

IMPORT CITIES [
  name = %city_label,
  geom = wkt(%city_data)
] FROM "csv://mycsvfile.csv";

The 'city_label' column provides a name for each city. The 'city_data' column provides point data stored as WKT points.

Cities are used for geocoding purposes only and cannot be used to draw on a map, unlike POIs, polygons and streets.