I am trying to create an address locator for the state of Texas (it can be split into 11 regions). I read over the PDF on relationships on the Census Bureau's website(http://www.census.gov/geo/www/tiger/tgrshp2010/TGRSHP10SF1CH6.pdf). They recommend using the All Lines shapefiles which also require the Address Ranges Relationship files for all of the address data. I have downloaded several county All Lines shapefiles and the Address Ranges Relationship files for these counties. I merged the shapefiles for the counties and the tables and now have one shapefile and one table. The Census Bureau says to link these two files using the TLID field. However, it is a one (shapefile) to many (table) relationship since each line segment has multiple address rnages associated with it. I have not created an address locator before, but I understand it needs to be a single file. How can I join these to use them as intended - to create an address locator?
I submitted a question to the census bureau as well and below is what I heard back today. I am still waiting to find out if I still need to link this shapefile to a table though their description doesn't sound like I will have to. I will test it out this week, even if I don't hear back, and post the results here.
"The 2011 TIGER/Line Shapefiles were released yesterday. This set of shapefiles contains a new shapefile, address range - feature shapefile, which has better geocoding results than the all lines shapefile.
The Address Range-Feature (ADDRFEAT.shp) shapefile contains a record for each address range to street name combination. Address ranges associated to more than one street name are also represented by multiple coincident address range feature edge records. This shapefile includes all unsuppressed address ranges and will have better geocoding address match rates compared to the All Lines Shapefile (EDGES.shp) which only includes the most inclusive address range associated with each side of a street edge.
The TIGER/Line Files contain potential address ranges, not individual addresses. Potential ranges include the full range of possible structure numbers even though the actual structures may not exist. "
It's there, but hidden under the relationship files - I had to look for a bit. I was able to use this file to successfully geocode one county in my dataset today with 85% accuracy, and that low rate is probably due to errors in my dataset. I did not have to download any additional files to create the address locator. So, I guess the take away is not to use the instructions they provide as they are confusing, and it appears, unnecessary.