geocode.r

library(stringr)
library(rjson)

geocode <- function(loc_string){
	clean_loc <-  str_replace_all(str_replace_all(loc_string, "[[:punct:]]", ""), " ", "+")
	base_url <- "http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?address="
    loc_url <- paste(base_url, clean_loc, "&sensor=false", sep="")
	geocode <- fromJSON(paste(readLines(loc_url), collapse=""))
	if( length(geocode$results) > 0 ){
		return(geocode$results[[1]]$geometry$location)
	}
	else return(NA)
}
	
#> geocode("Casey, Antarctica")
#
##$lat
##[1] -66.28167
##
##$lng
##[1] 110.5244
##
##