WOLFRAM

GeoIdentify[enttype]

identifies the geographic entities of the type enttype in which the current geo location is contained.

GeoIdentify[enttype,loc]

identifies the entities in which the location loc is contained.

identifies the entities of any type in which the current geo location is contained.

Details and Options

  • GeoIdentify returns a list of Entity objects representing extended geographic regions.
  • In GeoIdentify[enttype,loc], loc can be any geo location object, including GeoPosition objects; geo entities of domains such as "City", "Country" or "HistoricalCountry"; Dated[] objects; GeoVariant[] expressions; and more.
  • In GeoIdentify[enttype,loc], enttype can be specified as an Entity object, such as Entity["Country"], or as a string, such as "City".
  • Valid forms for enttype include:
  • "Country"country, territory, etc.
    "City"city
    "AdministrativeDivision"administrative division of any level
    "AdministrativeDivision1"first-level administrative division
    "AdministrativeDivision2"second-level administrative division
    "AdministrativeDivision3"third-level administrative division
    "HistoricalCountry"historical countries, regions, empires, etc.
    "MilitaryConflict"military conflicts
    "Ocean"ocean
    "USCounty"US county
    "USState"US state
    "ZIPCode"US ZIP code
    Dated[ent,date]entities of type enttype in date
    GeoVariant[enttype,variant]entities using variant regions
    EntityClass["type","class"]individual members of class
    enttype1|enttype2|any of the enttypei
    Allany possible type
  • The location loc can be specified as a GeoPosition, an Entity object, or a GeoGraphics primitive.
  • In GeoIdentify[] and GeoIdentify[regtype], the location is taken to be the current setting for $GeoLocation.

Examples

open allclose all

Basic Examples  (4)Summary of the most common use cases

The country of your current location:

Out[1]=1

The center of the Atlantic Ocean is not in any country:

Out[1]=1

It is basically only contained in the ocean itself:

Out[2]=2

The state and ZIP code of GeoPosition[{42.11`,-89.24`}]:

Out[1]=1

All entities containing your current geo location:

Out[1]=1

Scope  (10)Survey of the scope of standard use cases

Geographic Data  (6)

All entities containing the Willis Tower:

Out[1]=1

The city and country containing the Empire State Building:

Out[1]=1

Administrative divisions containing your current location:

Out[1]=1

The county at the center of the United States:

Out[1]=1

Hawaii is in the United States:

Out[1]=1

But it is not in this main landmass:

Out[2]=2
Out[3]=3

Determine inside which, if any, NAFTA country your current location is contained:

Out[1]=1

This location is not inside any of those countries:

Out[2]=2
Out[3]=3

Historical Data  (4)

Find the historical countries that contained the battle of Zama at the time of the battle:

Out[1]=1

Using Dated with the entity type will return results specifying the date of spatial overlap:

Out[1]=1

Using a non-historical entity with a historical entity type will compute overlaps, ignoring date information:

Out[1]=1

Restrict the search to a given date range using Dated with the entity:

Out[2]=2

Restrict the search to a given date range using Dated with the entity type, obtaining overlap intervals:

Out[3]=3

Identify the historical entity containing a given geo position on a given date:

Out[1]=1

Options  (1)Common values & functionality for each option

"FullyContained"  (1)

By default, an entity is considered to contain the location if it covers a portion of the location:

Out[1]=1

The option "FullyContained"->True excludes entities that cover only a portion of the location:

Out[2]=2

Applications  (1)Sample problems that can be solved with this function

Find the countries along a great-circle path from London to New Delhi:

Out[1]=1

Visualize the path with tooltips for the countries flown over:

Out[2]=2

Properties & Relations  (3)Properties of the function, and connections to other functions

GeoIdentify always returns a list:

Out[1]=1

This list may be empty:

Out[2]=2

If the location queried is an extended region, there may be multiple containing entities:

Out[1]=1

For extended locations loc, GeoIdentify[enttype,loc] is essentially equivalent to GeoEntities[loc,enttype]:

Out[1]=1
Wolfram Research (2014), GeoIdentify, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/GeoIdentify.html (updated 2024).
Wolfram Research (2014), GeoIdentify, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/GeoIdentify.html (updated 2024).

Text

Wolfram Research (2014), GeoIdentify, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/GeoIdentify.html (updated 2024).

Wolfram Research (2014), GeoIdentify, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/GeoIdentify.html (updated 2024).

CMS

Wolfram Language. 2014. "GeoIdentify." Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Wolfram Research. Last Modified 2024. https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/GeoIdentify.html.

Wolfram Language. 2014. "GeoIdentify." Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Wolfram Research. Last Modified 2024. https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/GeoIdentify.html.

APA

Wolfram Language. (2014). GeoIdentify. Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Retrieved from https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/GeoIdentify.html

Wolfram Language. (2014). GeoIdentify. Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Retrieved from https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/GeoIdentify.html

BibTeX

@misc{reference.wolfram_2025_geoidentify, author="Wolfram Research", title="{GeoIdentify}", year="2024", howpublished="\url{https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/GeoIdentify.html}", note=[Accessed: 04-May-2025 ]}

@misc{reference.wolfram_2025_geoidentify, author="Wolfram Research", title="{GeoIdentify}", year="2024", howpublished="\url{https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/GeoIdentify.html}", note=[Accessed: 04-May-2025 ]}

BibLaTeX

@online{reference.wolfram_2025_geoidentify, organization={Wolfram Research}, title={GeoIdentify}, year={2024}, url={https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/GeoIdentify.html}, note=[Accessed: 04-May-2025 ]}

@online{reference.wolfram_2025_geoidentify, organization={Wolfram Research}, title={GeoIdentify}, year={2024}, url={https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/GeoIdentify.html}, note=[Accessed: 04-May-2025 ]}