reverse geocoding with python geocoder

The problem is that you forgot to add quotes around your option reverse:

g = geocoder.google(['lat','lon'], method='reverse') 

I consider that a mistake in their documentation. You could send a message to the author to inform him/her of this, he/she might want to update their docs.

Furthermore, you'll want to call it with the actual parameters lat and lon, not the strings. Otherwise you'll get an error. So,

g = geocoder.google([lat, lon], method='reverse') # lat and lon you've extracted already, but maybe you'll still need to cast them to float. 

Update: if you're running into reverse lookups that give g.ok == False, then the problem is related to the throttling of your requests by the API provider (in the examples above, this is Google). For example, the Google Maps API specifies fair use and should not be polled overly fast. This information is clear when you call g.debug(). Among the output will be:

## Provider's Attributes * status: OVER_QUERY_LIMIT * error_message: You have exceeded your rate-limit for this API. 

To throttle your requests, you could do the following:

import geocoder import unicodecsv import logging import time import csv pcode=[] with open('locs2.csv', 'rb') as f: reader = csv.DictReader(f) for line in reader: lat = float(line['lat']) lon = float(line['lon']) g = geocoder.google([lat,lon], method='reverse') attempts = 1 # number of lookups while not(g.ok) and attempts < 4: logging.warning('Geocoding ERROR: {}'.format(g.debug())) time.sleep(2) # 2 seconds are specified in the API. If you still get errors, it's because you've reached the daily quota. g = geocoder.google([lat,lon], method='reverse') attempts += 1 if attempts > 3: logging.warning('Daily quota of google lookups exceeded.') break pcode.extend(g.postal) logging.info('Geocoding SUCCESS: ({},{},{})'.format(lat,lon,pcode)) 

Some of the providers, such as Mapquest, don't impose throttling at the moment.

One bug present in geocoder version 0.9.1 is that latand lon should both differ from 0.0. The lookup will generate a TypeError if you have coordinates like that (along the equator or the Greenwhich meridian).