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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-13T19:31:08+00:00

So I have been tasked to create a site which has a dentist locator

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So I have been tasked to create a site which has a dentist locator based on the zip code inputted. There will be 8 dentists that will be available. I will probably set up a table in a mysql database to hold the information on the dentists (more will be added in the future).

I just don’t really know how to get started. I know it cant be all to hard to implement because soo many sites have it. Is there any free open source ways of doing this? If I need to pay for some sort of zip database, so be it.

Any pointers would be appreciated.

I should add: I will be using php/mysql/jquery. The local is USA.

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  1. Editorial Team

    Here is the database you need, zip codes with lat/long co-ordinates
    http://sourceforge.net/projects/zips/files/

    and here is how you would implement “find the zip codes within x miles of given zip code” (believe it is written in VB)

    http://www.wwwcoder.com/Default.aspx?tabid=68&site=3551&parentid=451&type=art

    Python Implementation:
    http://code.activestate.com/recipes/393241/

    Math background:
    http://www.meridianworlddata.com/Distance-Calculation.asp

    Once you get this result set, you would match the doctors who are in these zip codes

    Best of luck!!

    Edit: My suggestion is you use your DB to return you the list of zip codes within “x” miles of a given zip code rather than doing it in PHP. Extending this, you can have a stored proc/function which can return a list of doctors within x miles of a given zip code. You might also want to handle pagination accordingly (if you are using pagination) (Limit & offset ,I guess in MySQL. might be wrong, its a long time since I used it)

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