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Find Distance Between two Addresses using Google API and PHP

Last updated on by , 44 comments

In this article, you are going to learn that, how to create a distance calculator sort of module which can find distance between two addresses. We are going to use google map API and PHP to accomplish this task.

View Demo

The distance calculator module we are going to develop here is basically an API provided by The Google itself. This API can measure the driving distance between two location as well as Travel Time. You can also measure distance between cities using this module.

The format for origin location and destination location could be one of the following:

  • place name (e.g. Bhopal, India)
  • ZIP code (e.g. 462016)
  • latitude/longitude coordinates (e.g. 23.77xxx, 77.30xxx)

to know more about permissible formats please visit Google’s official documentation page.

Find Distance Between two Addresses

Step 1:- Get a google’s API Key from https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/distance-matrix/get-api-key.

click on GET A KEY button

find distance between two addresses

now click on +create a new project and enter your project name then click on ENABLE API button

distance calculator api

then after you are finally prompted to a popup window containing your API KEY.

calculate distance between two cities

Step 2: source code


<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
    <body>

        <form action="" method="post">

            <label>Origin:</label> <input type="text" name="o" placeholder="Enter Origin location" required> <br><br>
            <label>Destination:</label> <input type="text" name="d" placeholder="Enter Destination location" required> <br><br>
            <input type="submit" value="Calculate distance & time" name="submit"> <br><br>

        </form>

        <?php
            if(isset($_POST['submit'])){
            $origin = $_POST['o']; $destination = $_POST['d'];
            $api = file_get_contents("https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/distancematrix/json?units=imperial&origins=".$origin."&destinations=".$destination."&key=YOUR_API_KEY");
            $data = json_decode($api);
        ?>

            <label><b>Distance: </b></label> <span><?php echo ((int)$data->rows[0]->elements[0]->distance->value / 1000).' Km'; ?></span> <br><br>
            <label><b>Travel Time: </b></label> <span><?php echo $data->rows[0]->elements[0]->duration->text; ?></span> 

        <?php } ?>

    </body>
</html>

replace YOUR_API_KEY with your API KEY (Step 1) in above code.

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Author Info

Paritosh Pandey

He loves Technology

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44 responses to “Find Distance Between two Addresses using Google API and PHP”

  1. harris says:

    Well great information paritosh. explained in detail. Thanks for sharing.

  2. Christos says:

    Very good explaining and clean code, well done. I wish you could consider some demo preview…

    Keep us posted…

  3. Hey just wanted to give you a quick heads up. The words in your article seem
    to be running off the screen in Safari. I’m not sure if this is
    a format issue or something to do with browser compatibility but I thought I’d post to let you
    know. The design look great though! Hope you get the problem solved soon. Many thanks

  4. Alex says:

    Nice, but is there a way to get suggestion when you type the address? For instance if you type Paris to see: Paris, France, Paris Museum….?

  5. Vinay nvd says:

    That was a great explanation, I have to develop such kind of application in my website. Thanks alot for sharing.

  6. tahir says:

    Notice: Undefined offset: 0 in C:\xampp\htdocs\bus\api.php on line 19

    Notice: Trying to get property ‘elements’ of non-object in C:\xampp\htdocs\bus\api.php on line 19

    Notice: Trying to get property ‘distance’ of non-object in C:\xampp\htdocs\bus\api.php on line 19

    Notice: Trying to get property ‘value’ of non-object in C:\xampp\htdocs\bus\api.php on line 19
    0 Km

    #error of ur code

    • Paritosh Pandey says:

      Hello @tahir,

      its my bad I’ve not used exceptions.

      please print the $api variable, I think it is not returning the required response.

      maybe it is because of providing an invalid API_KEY.

  7. manik says:

    I am copied your code carefully but it’s not working

    • Paritosh Pandey says:

      what error exactly you’re getting, please try to share that errors, so that I can help you out.

      • deepak maidasani says:

        I am getting these errors while running your code. How to solve this?
        Notice: Undefined offset: 0 in C:\xampp\htdocs\bus\api.php on line 19

        Notice: Trying to get property ‘elements’ of non-object in C:\xampp\htdocs\bus\api.php on line 19

        Notice: Trying to get property ‘distance’ of non-object in C:\xampp\htdocs\bus\api.php on line 19

        Notice: Trying to get property ‘value’ of non-object in C:\xampp\htdocs\bus\api.php on line 19
        0 Km

  8. Tin says:

    Thank you so much for this! You saved me a while of research/”reverse-engineering” the API
    Best regards

  9. Thibaut says:

    Hi,
    Thanks for the code

    But I can’t make it working even on the demo page.
    I try few adress and gps coordinate on your demo page but it always return 0 km.

    Does your demo page still working ?

    Thankss

  10. Ridhwan says:

    Distance: rows[0]->elements[0]->distance->value / 1000).’ Km’; ?>

    Travel Time: rows[0]->elements[0]->duration->text; ?>

    Sorry, please help me

  11. TANVIR HASAN says:

    Dear,
    First of all thanks a lot for your post.
    I try to your code and it working, but have a problem. problem is when i add to API, 1st time it’s working but not working 2nd time. so what can i do now. I am a student. it’s my University project. please help me.

  12. santosh says:

    hello sir i am use you code.

    please help me how to find free google API KEY i have no idea about API because i am a student
    please help me. please reply as soon as possible

    • Paritosh Pandey says:

      Google has changed their API’s pricing plans, even though anyone can use their API for free as well.

      You have to enable billing first, when you enable billing, you get $200 free usage every month for Maps, Routes, or Places(please refer google’s official page for more info).

      I think $200 would be more than enough for an any Individuals.

  13. santosh says:

    hello sir,

    i want to aad price in your code
    please share code.

    regards,
    santosh yadav

  14. Michal says:

    Hi,
    Thank you for your code. Actually it does not seem to work for me. I have copied all the code form article and I’ve added my api. All I can see after the refresh is:

    Origin: [input]
    Destination: [input]

    Distance: rows[0]->elements[0]->distance->value / 1000).’ Km’; ?>
    Travel Time: rows[0]->elements[0]->duration->text; ?>

  15. Zahid says:

    Thanks a lot

  16. Neil says:

    Thanks so much for this, the demo still works but when I use the same code on a test page with my own API key, I always get 0km as the result and no travel time. What could be the problem?

    In Google I can see my calls are being received by the API. I am trying Melbourne to Sydney, which comes up with results in your demo but not mine…

  17. Jitendra Ruley says:

    Thanks Dear bro…….for doing such a help.

  18. Hamza Wazir says:

    yor demo is not working it give me 0 KM distance

  19. karthick says:

    Hai
    I am beginner level in php. May i know how to implement to calculation distance by state wise mileage and insert fetch data in mysql db:
    For eg:
    From Input field : columbus
    To Input Field : Miami

    Summary
    From: Columbus, OH, USA
    To: Miami, FL, USA
    Duration: 17 hours 8 mins
    State Distance (miles)
    OH 113.3
    WV 146.85
    VA 71.25
    NC 107.04
    SC 228.05
    GA 112.76
    FL 376.12
    Total 1155.38

    Waiting for you help

  20. Sadam Hussain says:

    I facing some problem please help me the api key give the problem
    util.js:230 Google Maps JavaScript API warning: NoApiKeys https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/error-messages#no-api-keys
    pz.o @ util.js:230
    util.js:230 Google Maps JavaScript API warning: SensorNotRequired https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/error-messages#sensor-not-required

  21. ajay says:

    your information is helpful, thankyou

  22. Distance:
    Notice: Undefined offset: 0 in C:\xampp\htdocs\cal\distance.php on line 21

    Notice: Trying to get property ‘elements’ of non-object in C:\xampp\htdocs\cal\distance.php on line 21

    Notice: Trying to get property ‘distance’ of non-object in C:\xampp\htdocs\cal\distance.php on line 21

    Notice: Trying to get property ‘value’ of non-object in C:\xampp\htdocs\cal\distance.php on line 21
    0 Km

    Travel Time:
    Notice: Undefined offset: 0 in C:\xampp\htdocs\cal\distance.php on line 22

    Notice: Trying to get property ‘elements’ of non-object in C:\xampp\htdocs\cal\distance.php on line 22

    Notice: Trying to get property ‘duration’ of non-object in C:\xampp\htdocs\cal\distance.php on line 22

    Notice: Trying to get property ‘text’ of non-object in C:\xampp\htdocs\cal\distance.php on line 22

    i am getting this error

    • Paritosh Pandey says:

      Hello Shrutik,

      it seems $data variable is not getting populated as we need, could you please share print_r($data); data?

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