CLPlacemark - State Abbreviations?

Question

I was wondering if it was possible to get the state abbreviations from CLPlacemark?

In the CLPlacemark Reference from Apple it states:

administrativeArea The state or province associated with the placemark. (read-only) @property(nonatomic, readonly) NSString *administrativeArea Discussion If the placemark location is Apple’s headquarters, for example, the value for this property would be the string “CA” or “California”.

but whenever I use it, I only get the full state (i.e California) and not the abbreviation (i.e CA). Can anyone help me here?

Answer 1

For anyone else that needs a solution for this, I've created a category class for CLPlacemark that returns the short state string. All you need to do is call myPlacemark shortState

CLPlacemark+ShortState.h

#import <CoreLocation/CoreLocation.h>
#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>

@interface CLPlacemark (ShortState)

- (NSString *)shortState;

@end

CLPlacemark+ShortState.m

#import "CLPlacemark+ShortState.h"

@interface CLPlacemark (ShortStatePrivate)

- (NSDictionary *)nameAbbreviations;

@end

@implementation CLPlacemark (ShortState)

- (NSString *)shortState {

    NSString *state = [self.administrativeArea lowercaseString];

    if (state.length==0)
        return nil;

    return [[self nameAbbreviations] objectForKey:state];

}

- (NSDictionary *)nameAbbreviations {

    static NSDictionary *nameAbbreviations = nil;

    static dispatch_once_t onceToken;
    dispatch_once(&onceToken, ^{

        nameAbbreviations = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:
                             @"AL",@"alabama",
                             @"AK",@"alaska",
                             @"AZ",@"arizona",
                             @"AR",@"arkansas",
                             @"CA",@"california",
                             @"CO",@"colorado",
                             @"CT",@"connecticut",
                             @"DE",@"delaware",
                             @"DC",@"district of columbia",
                             @"FL",@"florida",
                             @"GA",@"georgia",
                             @"HI",@"hawaii",
                             @"ID",@"idaho",
                             @"IL",@"illinois",
                             @"IN",@"indiana",
                             @"IA",@"iowa",
                             @"KS",@"kansas",
                             @"KY",@"kentucky",
                             @"LA",@"louisiana",
                             @"ME",@"maine",
                             @"MD",@"maryland",
                             @"MA",@"massachusetts",
                             @"MI",@"michigan",
                             @"MN",@"minnesota",
                             @"MS",@"mississippi",
                             @"MO",@"missouri",
                             @"MT",@"montana",
                             @"NE",@"nebraska",
                             @"NV",@"nevada",
                             @"NH",@"new hampshire",
                             @"NJ",@"new jersey",
                             @"NM",@"new mexico",
                             @"NY",@"new york",
                             @"NC",@"north carolina",
                             @"ND",@"north dakota",
                             @"OH",@"ohio",
                             @"OK",@"oklahoma",
                             @"OR",@"oregon",
                             @"PA",@"pennsylvania",
                             @"RI",@"rhode island",
                             @"SC",@"south carolina",
                             @"SD",@"south dakota",
                             @"TN",@"tennessee",
                             @"TX",@"texas",
                             @"UT",@"utah",
                             @"VT",@"vermont",
                             @"VA",@"virginia",
                             @"WA",@"washington",
                             @"WV",@"west virginia",
                             @"WI",@"wisconsin",
                             @"WY",@"wyoming",
                             nil];
    });

    return nameAbbreviations;
}

@end