Get a List of Locations

Overview

The Locations API allows us to get detailed information about places around the globe. Among other information, it provides the unique key for each location. This key is important since we'll use it in the coming lessons to invoke other APIs to get various kinds of weather data.

In this lesson, we learn how to get a specified number of top cities around the globe with their detailed information. Moreover, we also learn how to get a list of all countries in a given region along with their basic information.

List the top cities in the world

The Top Cities List endpoint allows us to retrieve a list of the top cities in the world. The ranking of the cities is based on a number of factors including, but not limited to, the population of the city, its political importance, and its geographic size. This endpoint provides detailed information for each city, including its geographical position, timezone, and population. We can retrieve information for the top 50, 100, or 150 cities worldwide using this endpoint.

Let's make a GET request to the following URL to get a list of a certain number of top cities around the world:

http://dataservice.accuweather.com/locations/v1/topcities/{group}

Input parameters

Sample code

In the code below, we set the parameter group to 50 on line 1. You can try adding the optional parameters, language and details, to the URL on lines 3–4 for fine-tuning the results.

Click the "Run" button to see the output.

The code above displays the specified number of top cities around the globe and their detailed information, including the response parameters given in the table below. In case of failure, an appropriate error message is displayed.

Response parameters

Note: The list of response parameters above is not exhaustive. Please refer to the appendix for details of the response.

List countries in a specific region

The Country List endpoint allows us to retrieve a list of all countries in a specific region. It also provides some basic information about each country, including its ISO country codeIt is a 2-letter or 3-letter internationally recognised code for a country., its localized name, and its English name.

We make a GET request to the following URL to get a list of all countries in a region of our choice:

http://dataservice.accuweather.com/locations/v1/countries/{regionCode}

Input parameters

Sample code

In the code below, we enter NAM, which is the region code for North America, for the parameter regionCode on line 1. You can try adding the optional parameter language to the URL on lines 3–4 to get the results in a language of your choice.

Click the "Run" button to see the output.

Note: Please refer to the appendix for all the regions and their corresponding codes.

The code above displays a list of all countries in the specified region. For each country, it provides the information given in the table below. In case of failure, an appropriate error message is displayed.

Response parameters