GeoIdentify[enttype]
identifies the geographic entities of the type enttype in which the current geo location is contained.
GeoIdentify[enttype,loc]
identifies the entities in which the location loc is contained.
identifies the entities of any type in which the current geo location is contained.
GeoIdentify
GeoIdentify[enttype]
identifies the geographic entities of the type enttype in which the current geo location is contained.
GeoIdentify[enttype,loc]
identifies the entities in which the location loc is contained.
identifies the entities of any type in which the current geo location is contained.
Details and Options
- GeoIdentify returns a list of Entity objects representing extended geographic regions.
- In GeoIdentify[enttype,loc], loc can be any geo location object, including GeoPosition objects; geo entities of domains such as "City", "Country" or "HistoricalCountry"; Dated[…] objects; GeoVariant[…] expressions; and more.
- In GeoIdentify[enttype,loc], enttype can be specified as an Entity object, such as Entity["Country"], or as a string, such as "City".
- Valid forms for enttype include:
-
"Country" country, territory, etc. "City" city "AdministrativeDivision" administrative division of any level "AdministrativeDivision1" first-level administrative division "AdministrativeDivision2" second-level administrative division "AdministrativeDivision3" third-level administrative division "HistoricalCountry" historical countries, regions, empires, etc. "MilitaryConflict" military conflicts "Ocean" ocean "USCounty" US county "USState" US state "ZIPCode" US ZIP code Dated[ent,date] entities of type enttype in date GeoVariant[enttype,variant] entities using variant regions EntityClass["type","class"] individual members of class enttype1|enttype2|… any of the enttypei All any possible type - The location loc can be specified as a GeoPosition, an Entity object, or a GeoGraphics primitive.
- In GeoIdentify[] and GeoIdentify[regtype], the location is taken to be the current setting for $GeoLocation.
- GeoIdentify takes the following options:
-
"FullyContained" False whether loc is fully contained within reg TimeConstraint 20 maximum computation time, in seconds
Examples
open all close allBasic Examples (4)
The country of your current location:
GeoIdentify["Country"]The center of the Atlantic Ocean is not in any country:
GeoIdentify["Country", GeoPosition[{0, -25.}]]It is contained in several Atlantic-related regions:
GeoIdentify[All, GeoPosition[{0, -25.}]]The state and ZIP code of GeoPosition[{42.11`,-89.24`}]:
GeoIdentify["USState" | "ZIPCode", GeoPosition[{42.11, -89.24}]]All entities containing your current geo location:
GeoIdentify[]Scope (10)
Geographic Data (6)
All entities containing the Willis Tower:
GeoIdentify[All, Entity["Building", "WillisTower::8tzqg"]]The city and country containing the Empire State Building:
GeoIdentify["City" | "Country", Entity["Building", "EmpireStateBuilding::h583b"]]Administrative divisions containing your current location:
GeoIdentify["AdministrativeDivision"]The county at the center of the United States:
GeoIdentify["AdministrativeDivision2", GeoVariant[Entity["Country", "UnitedStates"], "Center"]]Hawaii is in the United States:
GeoIdentify["Country", Entity["AdministrativeDivision", {"Hawaii", "UnitedStates"}]]But it is not in this main landmass:
GeoIdentify[GeoVariant["Country", "DefaultMapArea"], Entity["AdministrativeDivision", {"Hawaii", "UnitedStates"}]]GeoGraphics[{Polygon@GeoVariant[Entity["Country", "UnitedStates"], "DefaultMapArea"]}]Determine inside which, if any, NAFTA country your current location is contained:
GeoIdentify[EntityClass["Country", "NorthAmericanFreeTradeAgreement"]]This location is not inside any of those countries:
GeoIdentify[EntityClass["Country", "NorthAmericanFreeTradeAgreement"], GeoPosition[{9, -80.}]]GeoGraphics[GeoPosition[{9, -80}], GeoRange -> "Country"]Historical Data (4)
Find the historical countries that contained the battle of Zama at the time of the battle:
GeoIdentify["HistoricalCountry", Entity["MilitaryConflict", "BattleOfZama"]]Using Dated with the entity type will return results specifying the date of spatial overlap:
GeoIdentify[Dated["HistoricalCountry", All], Entity["MilitaryConflict", "BattleOfZama"]]Using a non-historical entity with a historical entity type will compute overlaps, ignoring date information:
GeoIdentify["HistoricalCountry", Entity["City", {"Rome", "Lazio", "Italy"}]]Restrict the search to a given date range using Dated with the entity:
GeoIdentify["HistoricalCountry", Dated[Entity["City", {"Rome", "Lazio", "Italy"}], 500]]Restrict the search to a given date range using Dated with the entity type, obtaining overlap intervals:
GeoIdentify[Dated["HistoricalCountry", {1500, 1900}], Entity["City", {"Rome", "Lazio", "Italy"}]]Identify the historical entity containing a given geo position on a given date:
GeoIdentify["HistoricalCountry", Dated[GeoPosition[{-12.0433, -77.0283}], 1500]]Options (2)
"FullyContained" (1)
By default, an entity is considered to contain the location if it covers a portion of the location:
GeoIdentify["Country", Entity["Lake", "LakeOntario::35gt7"]]The option "FullyContained"->True excludes entities that cover only a portion of the location:
GeoIdentify["Country", Entity["Lake", "LakeOntario::35gt7"], "FullyContained" -> True]TimeConstraint (1)
Imposing a very short time constraint may prevent the function from working:
GeoIdentify["Country", Entity["Building", "EiffelTower::5h9w8"], TimeConstraint -> 0.1]The default time constraint allows the computation to give the expected result:
GeoIdentify["Country", Entity["Building", "EiffelTower::5h9w8"]]Applications (1)
Find the countries along a great-circle path from London to New Delhi:
ents = GeoIdentify["Country", GeoPath[{Entity["City", {"London", "GreaterLondon", "UnitedKingdom"}], Entity["City", {"NewDelhi", "Delhi", "India"}]}]]Visualize the path with tooltips for the countries flown over:
GeoGraphics[{GeoPath[{Entity["City", {"London", "GreaterLondon", "UnitedKingdom"}], Entity["City", {"NewDelhi", "Delhi", "India"}]}], ({RandomColor[], Polygon[#1]}&) /@ ents}, GeoRange -> GeoDisk[{25, 40}, Quantity[5000, "Kilometers"]], GeoBackground -> "Plain"]Properties & Relations (3)
GeoIdentify always returns a list:
GeoIdentify["Country", GeoPosition[{40.11, -88.24}]]GeoIdentify["Country", GeoVariant[Entity["Ocean", "PacificOcean"], "Center"]]If the location queried is an extended region, there may be multiple containing entities:
GeoIdentify["AdministrativeDivision1", Entity["Country", "Spain"]]For extended locations loc, GeoIdentify[enttype,loc] is essentially equivalent to GeoEntities[loc,enttype]:
GeoIdentify["AdministrativeDivision2", Entity["AdministrativeDivision", {"Delaware", "UnitedStates"}]] === GeoEntities[Entity["AdministrativeDivision", {"Delaware", "UnitedStates"}], "AdministrativeDivision2"]Related Guides
Text
Wolfram Research (2014), GeoIdentify, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/GeoIdentify.html (updated 2024).
CMS
Wolfram Language. 2014. "GeoIdentify." Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Wolfram Research. Last Modified 2024. https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/GeoIdentify.html.
APA
Wolfram Language. (2014). GeoIdentify. Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Retrieved from https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/GeoIdentify.html
BibTeX
@misc{reference.wolfram_2026_geoidentify, author="Wolfram Research", title="{GeoIdentify}", year="2024", howpublished="\url{https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/GeoIdentify.html}", note=[Accessed: 12-June-2026]}
BibLaTeX
@online{reference.wolfram_2026_geoidentify, organization={Wolfram Research}, title={GeoIdentify}, year={2024}, url={https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/GeoIdentify.html}, note=[Accessed: 12-June-2026]}