Zip Code Project

A couple days ago I finished reading the Processing Handbook, which gave a very solid overview of the Processing language. I now feel like I have a good feel for what the language is capable of doing, and thus have a better understanding of what all I can put to use in my own visualizations.

After the diversion into theory, I finished the Zip Code project in Visualizing Data. In this example, we create a faux-population density map by mapping the latitude and longitudes of the center of each zip code in the US. The data pre-processing that went into this exact project was quite interesting. In addition to putting the data in a friendly text format (no commas, reformatting the city names from all-caps), we had to convert the latitude and longitude points to a projective view of the US, since this is the view that most people are used to seeing. (Map below and algorithm from here)

After formatting the data, we arrive with a scatterplot of zip codes. This example gets interesting, however, by allowing user input in typing in numbers, which in turn highlight the zip codes that start with that number(s). Below is the map for "9":

If one types in all five digits of a zip code, the name of the town with that zipcode is displayed on the screen:

The final component of this code is a zoom function that can be activated by clicking on the "zoom" on the bottom right. This zooms the viewing window in to see the zip codes containing the numbers typed. Here is "4":