best way to get city name from google reverse geocoding api php - php

Question

i am trying to get city name from google reverse geocoding api, my code is displaying full address of the location but i need only city. bellow is my code
<?php
session_start();
if(!empty($_POST['latitude']) && !empty($_POST['longitude'])){
//Send request and receive json data by latitude and longitude
$url = 'http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?latlng='.trim($_POST['latitude']).','.trim($_POST['longitude']).'&sensor=false';
$json = #file_get_contents($url);
$data = json_decode($json);
$status = $data->status;
if($status=="OK"){
//Get address from json data
//$location = $data->results[0]->formatted_address;
$location = $data->results[0]->address_components;
}else{
$location = '';
}
//Print city
$_SESSION['getgeoloc']=$location[6]->long_name;
echo $location;
}
?>
i tried below code to display city, but some times its showing zip code and sometimes city name
$_SESSION['getgeoloc']=$location[6]->long_name;
is there any best way ?

Answer 1

Here is the solution,
<?php
$lat = $_POST['lat'];
$lng = $_POST['lng'];
$url = 'http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?latlng='.$lat.','.$lng.'&sensor=false';
$json = #file_get_contents($url);
$data = json_decode($json);
$status = $data->status;
if($status=="OK") {
//Get address from json data
for ($j=0;$j<count($data->results[0]->address_components);$j++) {
$cn=array($data->results[0]->address_components[$j]->types[0]);
if(in_array("locality", $cn)) {
$city= $data->results[0]->address_components[$j]->long_name;
}
}
} else{
echo 'Location Not Found';
}
//Print city
echo $city;
This has solved my problem and works great. The main part is the for loop,
for ($j=0;$j<count($data->results[0]->address_components);$j++) {
$cn=array($data->results[0]->address_components[$j]->types[0]);
if (in_array("locality", $cn)) {
$city= $data->results[0]->address_components[$j]->long_name;
}
}
Hope this helps.

Answer 2

You can specify a result_type = locality in the query params like shown below.
For more information about filters, you can search for Optional parameters in a reverse Geocoding request documentation.
https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/geocoding/intro#ReverseGeocoding