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I have a list of zip codes (nearly thousands) which I want to show in qgis. After researching I found that I need to geocode them first into Lat/Long then I can use them to create a layer for qgis.

I have the zip codes in an excel file and I have imported it in sql server 2008.

Here is the table :

Zip
90001
90002
90003
90004

Is there a plugin or an easier way to show these zip's in QGIS?

underdark
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Ashish Gaur
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  • Could you post one entry in your table to show what it looks like? Is there any spatial information included (eg. coordinates)? – Martin Oct 07 '13 at 12:28
  • @Martin Edited the post. – Ashish Gaur Oct 07 '13 at 12:33
  • So your table does not include any spatial information? – Martin Oct 07 '13 at 12:37
  • yes it is plan zip codes which I want to convert to polygon which then I can plot it in qgis. But how can I do this? Sorry I am a newbie in shapefiles. – Ashish Gaur Oct 07 '13 at 12:38
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    @snyder I may be wrong but you can download the shape file contains US zip codes (Please check here http://spotfirecommunity.tibco.com/community/forums/p/2567/7788.aspx) then convert shape file to sql format using shptosql converter ...may be helpful for you – Sunil Oct 07 '13 at 12:51
  • Zip codes themselves (for whatever country you are in) does not contain any spatial information (eg. where in the world they are located), same as you can't just magically display a set of city names on a map. You need information about each zone's extent expressed as coordinates/vertexes. – Martin Oct 07 '13 at 13:02

2 Answers2

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You could download the US Census Zip Code Tabulation Areas. Then join your Zip Code (numbers) to the ZCTA's and ultimately give you the spatial polygons that generally represent the Zip Code boundaries. While not a 1-to-1 match (because the US Postal Service does not publish their zip code boundaries), it should get you close.

See also:

Community
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RyanKDalton
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Please check out following links might be helpful for you to plot & see us zipcodes in QGIS.

1- http://www.infochimps.com/datasets/geonamesorg-postal-code-files-us-zip-code-geolocations (download points data and use Delimited Text Layer plugin to load csv or tsv in QGIS.)

2- http://faculty.baruch.cuny.edu/geoportal/data/esri/usa/census/zip_poly.zip (Polygon Data)

i hope it will help.

Rohit Swami
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Farhat Abbas
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