Google Places Autocomplete suggestions with Unit No/Subpremise is not coming in the response array

Question

I am using Google places API to auto-complete addresses using javascript

When I type the unit number and street number of address in the input box it shows the results in suggestion drop-down but when I select the address the listener for action 'place_changed' event don't have any address with address_component with type 'subpremise' even the formatted_address property don't have the unit number in it.Though it does contain other details from 'street number','city','country' etc

For example : If I type "1403/648 Bourke Street" with a country restriction to Australia. It shows me 5 results in the dropdown with first one as "1403/648 Bourke street, Melbourne,Australia" but when I select this option all I get in the place_change event listener is "648 Bourke street, Melbourne, Australia"

This issue is intermittent though, it works for some unit addresses but fail for other.Any suggestion will be highly appreciated!!

Answer 1

It seems to me like Google is validating that the address is real (well atleast real when they last updated their places database - I guess with government records). The problem is that subdivisions are happening all the time where new "subpremise" addresses are created, and a look up on these seems to be br0ken more often. It's strange that they allow a "non-valid" address as an autocomplete suggestion but then limit the result.

A look up on the Sydney address below will return "subpremise" and "street_number"

"9/321 Pitt Street, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia"

Where the Melbourne address below only gets as accurate as "route"

"2/321 Pitt Street, Brunswick, Victoria, Australia"

The biggest problem is that the result doesn't return the unit or street number anywhere in the reply.

I have hacked together the following JS to compare the user-entered address with the returned result. If the "numbers" are missing, they are added. You can customise as you need to fit with your code.

if (addressType == 'route') {     var regex = RegExp('^(.*)'+GPLACESSTREET.split(' ',1)[0]), // get all the user entered values before a match with the first word from the Google result         result = regex.exec(INPUTFEILD.value);      if ( Array.isArray(result) ) {         FULLSTREETADDRESS = result[1]+''+GPLACESSTREET; // add the street name to the user-entered unit & street number     } }