Find geographic entities

Using ArcGIS Explorer Online, you can search for and locate places and addresses on a map. To find these entities, type what you want to find in the Find Places box and press ENTER or click the Find button .

The results are listed below the Find Places box in the Results drop-down list and are highlighted in the map by pushpins. Explorer Online also navigates the map to the first location in the list. Click a different result in the Results drop-down list to navigate the map to the location of that result.

Clearing the Find Places box, or searching for another location, will remove the previous pushpins from the map. You can add the locations you find to the map as bookmarks by clicking the Bookmark link to the right of the result in the list.

Learn more about creating and using bookmarks

You can also use the callout shown above the pushpin to add the place to the map as a bookmark, or alternatively as a permanent feature in the map. In the callout, click the + button to show the Add To menu, and choose the layer to which you want to add the new feature.

Learn more about features

Tip:

Watch the short video Finding and saving places in a map

What do you want to find?

• A place by name
• An address
• A ZIP or postal code
• A location by latitude and longitude coordinates

To find a place by name

To find a place by name, enter its name, providing as much detail as you want; you'll see that the results returned depend on how specific you are. Searching for Pleasantville for example may find a variety of results, but searching for Pleasantville, OH will find only a single result.

To find an address

To find an address, type the address in the Find Places box. You can increase the likelihood of a positive result by using commas to separate lines in the address, and include as much of the address as you can (including the country), for example, 55 rue du faubourg Saint-Honoré, 75008 Paris, France or 380 New York St, Redlands, CA 92373.

To find a ZIP or postal code

To find a U.S. ZIP postal code area, type the five-digit code in the Find Places box, for example, 92373.

To locate an international postal code, supply the code and the country, for example, 75016, France.

To find a location by latitude and longitude coordinates

You can search for a location by specifying latitude (North/South) and longitude (East/West) pairs, using either Decimal Degrees (DD), for example 40.7166667, -74.0; or Degrees, Minutes, Seconds (DMS), for example 40°43′0"N 74°W.

Note:

Spherical coordinates aren't always specified in this order, so take care when you enter coordinates so that you enter them in this order. The latitude must be entered first. For example, if someone asks you to search for 17.1325 -60.666 on the map, ask them if these coordinates are in long/lat or lat/long order. The only way to tell the order from the coordinates themselves is if they contain E, W, N, S characters to signify the hemisphere.

Decimal Degrees (DD)

When using DD, use a minus sign before the numeric value to signify the Western or Southern quadrants (a plus sign can be included to indicate the Eastern and Northern quadrants although this is not a common usage).

Optionally, a comma may be used to separate the coordinates. The ° (degrees) special character is also optional.

Degrees Minutes Seconds (DMS)

When using DMS, you must include the N (North) or S (South) characters to indicate the direction of latitude, and the E (East) or W (West) characters to indicate the direction of longitude.

Values in DMS coordinates can be separated with the ° ' " special characters (such as when you paste coordinates that you have copied from other dialog boxes or applications that use those characters).

Optionally, a comma may be used to separate the coordinates.

A space between the DMS coordinates will be interpreted as a change to a new unit type, for example, Degrees <followed by a space> Minutes <followed by a space> Seconds, with a comma indicating the change from latitude to longitude. If using spaces in this way, use a comma to separate the two coordinates.

You can also use Degrees Minutes Decimal Seconds (DMDS) for extra accuracy if required.

Examples

Below are some supported examples of entering coordinate pairs using these different formats:

40.7166667 -74.0

40.7166667, -74.0

40.7166667° -74.0°

40.7166667°, -74.0°

40°43′0"N 74°W

40°43′0"N, 74°W

40 43 0 N, 74 W

40°43′01"N 74°0′0"W

40 43 1.03 N, 74 00 0.5 W