Question

I have found many calculations here and some php examples and most are just over my head.

I found this example:

SELECT b.zip_code, b.state,
       (3956 * (2 * ASIN(SQRT(
       POWER(SIN(((a.lat-b.lat)*0.017453293)/2),2) +
       COS(a.lat*0.017453293) *
       COS(b.lat*0.017453293) *
       POWER(SIN(((a.lng-b.lng)*0.017453293)/2),2))))) AS distance
FROM zips a, zips b
WHERE
       a.zip_code = '90210' ## I would use the users submitted value
GROUP BY distance
having distance <= 5; ## I would use the users submitted value

But, I am having trouble understanding how to implement the query with my database.

It looks like that query has all I need.

However, I cannot even find/understand what b.zip_code actually is! (whats the b. and zips a, zips b?)

I also do not need the state in the query.

My mySQL db structure is like this:

    ZIP | LAT     | LONG
  33416 | 26.6654 | -80.0929

I wrote this in attempt to return some kind of results (not based on above query) but, it only kicks out one zip code.

## Just for a test BUT, in reality I desire to SELECT a zip code WHERE ZIP = the users submitted zip code
## not by a submitted lat lon. I left off the $connect var, assume it's there.
my $set1 = (26.6654 - 0.20);
my $set2 = (26.6654 + 0.20);
my $set3 = (-80.0929 - 0.143);
my $set4 = (-80.0929 + 0.143);
my $test123 = $connect->prepare(qq{SELECT `ZIP` FROM `POSTAL`
WHERE `LAT` >= ? AND `LAT` <= ? 
AND `LONG` >= ? AND `LONG` <= ?})  or die "$DBI::errstr";
$test123->execute("$set1","$set2","$set3","$set4") or die "$DBI::errstr";
my $cntr;
while(@zip = $test123->fetchrow_array()) {
    print qq~$zip[$cntr]~;
    push(@zips,$zip[$cntr]);
    $cntr++;
}

As you can see, I am quite the novice so, I need some hand holding here with verbose explanation.

So, in Perl, how can I push zip codes into an array from a USER SUBMITTED ZIP CODE and user submitted DISTANCE in miles. Can be a square instead of a circle, not really that critical of a feature. Faster is better.

Answer 1

I don’t see what’s wrong with your first query. You have latitude and longitude in your database (if I’m understanding, you’re comparing a single entry to all others). You don’t need to submit or return the state that’s just part of the example. Make the first query work like this:

my $query = "SELECT b.zip_code,
       (3956 * (2 * ASIN(SQRT(
       POWER(SIN(((a.lat-b.lat)*0.017453293)/2),2) +
       COS(a.lat*0.017453293) *
       COS(b.lat*0.017453293) *
       POWER(SIN(((a.lng-b.lng)*0.017453293)/2),2))))) AS distance
FROM zips a, zips b WHERE
       a.zip_code = ? 
GROUP BY distance having distance <= ?";

my $sth = $dbh->prepare($query);
$sth->execute( $user_submitted_zip, $user_submitted_distance );
while( my ($zip, $distance) = $sth->fetchrow() ) ) {
     # do something
}

This won’t be that fast, but if you have a small record set ( less than 30k rows ) it should be fine. If you really want to go faster you should look into a search engine such as Sphinx which will do this for you.