How can I retrieve Latitude and Longitude of a postal address using Bing Maps?

Question

I want to be able to retrieve the geographical coordinates (latitude and longitude) for a given address. I'm hoping I can do that if I have the full address (street address + city + state + zip).

If it matters, I am using Bing Maps. The skeleton code I've got is this (fullAddress, AddPushpin(), and getGeoCordsForAddress() are the most pertinent parts):

private void btnSave_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    string fullAddress = string.Empty;
    if (MissingValues()) return;    

    mapName = cmbxMapName.SelectedItem.ToString();
    locationName = txtbxLocation.Text;
    address = txtbxAddress.Text;
    city = txtbxCity.Text;
    st8 = txtbxSt8.Text;
    zip = txtbxZip.Text;
    mapDetailNotes = richtxtbxMapNotes.Text;
    fullAddress = string.Format("{0} {1} {2} {3}", address, city, st8, zip);

    if (InsertIntoCartographerDetail())
    {
        MessageBox.Show("insert succeeded"); 
        AddPushpin(fullAddress);
        ClearControls();
    }
    else
    {
        MessageBox.Show("insert failed");
    }        
}

private void AddPushpin(string fullAddress)
{
    GeoCoordinate geoCoord = getGeoCordsForAddress(fullAddress);
    Pushpin pin = new Pushpin();
    pin.Location = new Location(geoCoord.Latitude, geoCoord.Longitude);
    . . .
}

private GeoCoordinate getGeoCordsForAddress(string fullAddress)
{
   GeoCoordinate gc = new GeoCoordinate();
   . . . // What goes here?
   return gc;
}

Answer 1

Microsoft has an official BingMapsRESTToolkit which helps you to work with Bing Maps REST Services easily. To do so, you need to install BingMapsRESTToolkit NuGet Package .

Here, you are interested in GeocodeRequest to get location by address.

Example - Get latitude and longitude by address and create a pushpin on map

Install BingMapsRESTToolkit NuGet Package and run the following code:

private async void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
   var request = new GeocodeRequest();
   request.BingMapsKey = "YOUR MAP KEY";

   request.Query = "172 Jalan Pinang, 50088 Kuala Lumpur, " +
           "Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia";
   //OR
   //request.Address = new SimpleAddress()
   //{
   //    CountryRegion = "Malaysia",
   //    AddressLine = "172 Jalan Pinang",
   //    AdminDistrict = "Kuala Lumpur, Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur",
   //    PostalCode = "50088",
   //};

   var result = await request.Execute();
   if (result.StatusCode == 200)
   {
       var toolkitLocation = (result?.ResourceSets?.FirstOrDefault())
               ?.Resources?.FirstOrDefault()
               as BingMapsRESTToolkit.Location;
       var latitude = toolkitLocation.Point.Coordinates[0];
       var longitude = toolkitLocation.Point.Coordinates[1];
       var mapLocation = new Microsoft.Maps.MapControl.WPF.Location(latitude, longitude);
       this.userControl11.myMap.SetView(mapLocation, 15);
       var p = new Pushpin() { Location = mapLocation, ToolTip = "KLCC Park" };
       this.userControl11.myMap.Children.Add(p);
   }
}

How to use WPF Bing Maps in Windows Forms:

• How can I add a Bing Maps Component to my C# Winforms app?
• Getting Bing Maps key

Bing Maps REST Toolkit related resources:

• Getting Started
• API Reference
• Project Homepage
• NuGet Package