GeoIdentify
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GeoIdentify

identifies the geographic entities of the type enttype 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 enttype1enttype2… any of the enttypei All any 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 allBasic Examples (4)Summary of the most common use cases
The country of your current location:

https://wolfram.com/xid/01y9by58p24-8ss30m

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

https://wolfram.com/xid/01y9by58p24-7c6iyy

It is basically only contained in the ocean itself:

https://wolfram.com/xid/01y9by58p24-v37hy4

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

https://wolfram.com/xid/01y9by58p24-pplzvs

All entities containing your current geo location:

https://wolfram.com/xid/01y9by58p24-9qbt5p

Scope (10)Survey of the scope of standard use cases
Geographic Data (6)
All entities containing the Willis Tower:

https://wolfram.com/xid/01y9by58p24-sle34n

The city and country containing the Empire State Building:

https://wolfram.com/xid/01y9by58p24-jwzw9a

Administrative divisions containing your current location:

https://wolfram.com/xid/01y9by58p24-bk7lqy

The county at the center of the United States:

https://wolfram.com/xid/01y9by58p24-pzd0vh

Hawaii is in the United States:

https://wolfram.com/xid/01y9by58p24-ww3nar

But it is not in this main landmass:

https://wolfram.com/xid/01y9by58p24-j2xpyx


https://wolfram.com/xid/01y9by58p24-rw4th8

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

https://wolfram.com/xid/01y9by58p24-dgq9oj

This location is not inside any of those countries:

https://wolfram.com/xid/01y9by58p24-8ejtro


https://wolfram.com/xid/01y9by58p24-66em5x

Historical Data (4)
Find the historical countries that contained the battle of Zama at the time of the battle:

https://wolfram.com/xid/01y9by58p24-1bspd3

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

https://wolfram.com/xid/01y9by58p24-chl4gc

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

https://wolfram.com/xid/01y9by58p24-l5s6yz

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

https://wolfram.com/xid/01y9by58p24-t2j9fx

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

https://wolfram.com/xid/01y9by58p24-57gawe

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

https://wolfram.com/xid/01y9by58p24-llc475

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:

https://wolfram.com/xid/01y9by58p24-qzja5u

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

https://wolfram.com/xid/01y9by58p24-ql8tnf

Applications (1)Sample problems that can be solved with this function
Properties & Relations (3)Properties of the function, and connections to other functions
GeoIdentify always returns a list:

https://wolfram.com/xid/01y9by58p24-1yg53l


https://wolfram.com/xid/01y9by58p24-ir5va5

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

https://wolfram.com/xid/01y9by58p24-j3vw19

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

https://wolfram.com/xid/01y9by58p24-yuwv4j

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
]}
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
]}