Creating spatial objects from 5-digit ZIP codes

[Mughees]

Hello,

I have a survey with the 5-digit ZIP codes (not ZIP+4) of our respondents' residence, and I am trying to use the "distance" spatial tool to calculate the distance in miles between their residence and the schools they are interested in applying to, which we have location data (longitude and latitude) on.

Is there any way to geocode this 5-digit ZIP for our respondents? Are there any limitations here? 

Thanks for any help!

[LonnieY · Accepted solution]

Hi.  Do you license the US Data or Spatial Bundle? If so,

1.  Use the Street Geocoder Tool to append a ZIP Code centroid during the geocoding process
2. If an Allocate dataset is available, you can also use the Allocate Append tool and append the Variables CentroidX and CentroidY from Allocate's Geographic Identifiers in the Current Year Estimates folder where ZIP Codes match
3. A join between your ZIP Code list and the Allocate Input tool can also bring over those Geographic Identifier centroid fields

Limitation - make sure your input list has a leading zero(s) for ZIP Codes on the East Coast or those associated with Forests, Counties, etc., which may have more than one leading zero. There is a great Alteryx sample to do this:  Formula_Append_Leading_Zeros.yxmd.

[Mughees]

Thank you for the quick and thorough reply. Yes, I license the Spatial Bundle and Data, and was able to get the output I needed.