Actually, the US Census Bureau provides the information for free, but
you have to do some work to associate a ZIP code with the data they
provide. Since zip codes dont have any real shape to them, and change
often, the census people have assigned their own numbers to different
areas. We've found it easier to to just ask the user for the state in
which they live, and then the city, choosing the city from the database
that most closely resembles what they said.
http://www.census.gov/geo/www/gazetteer/places2k.html
At that URL you can download all of the information in a text format.
With that information you get the lat/long coords of the cities, and it
just takes the formula (to long to remember) to find the distance
between the two points on a sphere.
Good luck.
gilrain wrote:
Hi folks,
I'm building a PHP/MySQL database for a customer. It's an advanced mailing
list for a band. They want to be able to send e-mails targetted to people
around where a gig takes place. For instance, if a concert is taking place
somewhere in the 42071 zipcode, they want to e-mail everyone within 500
miles of 42071. The database will have around 10,000 members, with e-mail
and mailing addresses.
Does anyone have a good idea for this?
Thanks a ton,
John Thile (gilrain)
http://lunarpolicy.net
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