UK Postcode Distance Calculator

I first put the attached file together some years ago, and I've mentioned it on one post here soon after I joined and have had a few PMs asking for a copy, so I thought I might as well submit it here.

The file works out the distance in miles between 2 UK postcodes. On the Single sheet you can enter the two postcodes in B3 and B4 (just up to the first space), and on the Multiple sheet you can enter several postcodes on different rows in columns A and B, where, for example, you might have one central location and need to know the distances to travel from other locations.

The file uses a lookup table containing lattitudes and longitudes, and calculates the straight-line distance between the "nominal" centre of each postcode.

Hope this is of use to some of you.

Pete

Good, But show more typical things like drop down list.

Hey this is prety handy, good work Pete.
Could you get it to work with the second half of the postcode?

Cheers
Carl

Hi Carl,

yes, it could be adapted to the full postcode - do you have a complete list of them?

Pete

I do, but it might be a bit exhaustive - there are over 1.6m of them - I've got the lat/lng for them too - dunno if it's of any use though!!

OS publish a free version of them with eastings and northings if you need them, it's a bit of a pain to convert them all into lat lon, but it's doable - I've got a SQL script that does it if you need, pretty accurate too from my testing

Hi Kyle,

I knew there was over a million of them, and I suppose new ones are added quite often (as new houses/office developments are built). I'm not sure how you could attach a file that large to the Forum.

Pete

It's one of the reasons I use a web service for distance calculations in Excel, they also go by road distance rather than as the crow flies

Originally Posted by Pete_UK

I first put the attached file together some years ago, and I've mentioned it on one post here soon after I joined and have had a few PMs asking for a copy, so I thought I might as well submit it here.

The file works out the distance in miles between 2 UK postcodes. On the Single sheet you can enter the two postcodes in B3 and B4 (just up to the first space), and on the Multiple sheet you can enter several postcodes on different rows in columns A and B, where, for example, you might have one central location and need to know the distances to travel from other locations.

The file uses a lookup table containing lattitudes and longitudes, and calculates the straight-line distance between the "nominal" centre of each postcode.

Hope this is of use to some of you.

Pete

Thank you for the share, great job! I am trying to figure out a way where if you enter a post code and a distance it will tell you the surrounding postcodes. Do you have any ideas on how to do this?

Thanks in advance

I think you would need to examine every postcode in the list (there are 2,800+ of them) and determine the distance to see if that is within range, and then report that. I think it would be a bit sluggish, so maybe there are other algorithms that would speed things up (like omitting the distance calculation if the lat or long or obviously out of range from the source postcode).

Pete

Check the distance between any cities in England on a map of the world.

This calculator will calculate the distance - http://distancecalculation.info/
between the cities on a map of the world will always help anyone
who wants to know the exact distance between the cities and countries of the world.

The calculation of the distance on the map of the world is possible!
In a straight line - as if you were flying in an airplane.
On the roads - always choose the most optimal route by road.
Walking - the calculation of distance is carried out on public roads with a speed of 5km / h.
Cycling - the distance calculation is carried out on public roads with a speed of 20km / h.

Our calculator can calculate a route only on free roads
then you do not have to pay for travel on the roads, as is well known in Europe
almost all toll roads, but there are free - this route will only
toll-free roads and you will save money

Our calculation distance calculator will give you additional information: approximate travel time, price and quantity of fuel
you potramite on this route, distance killometrah.

You can also create a complex route which will pass through only those cities that you need
You can add up to 10 intermediate cities and your route will be built through them.

Our distance calculator for calculating have additional fields where you will be able to
indicate how many liters of fuel your vehicle consumes on a 100km path, and specify the cost of fuel per 1 liter.

On the map of the world will show you a detailed route where it will be able to consider in detail, also
a geographical map of the route you will receive detailed instructions where you need to go by car and where you have to rotate the pointers to all traffic signs.

Pete
I just wanted to say thanks, this postcode calculator is brilliant and was exactly what i was after particulrly the batch function, thank you.
Mike

Thanks for the comment, Mike, but it is probably very out of date now as it was over 8 years ago that I submitted it.

I wonder if anyone has a more up-to-date list of postcodes?

Pete

That's a great one. Thank for sharing it. Can I ask you please? I realised you entered (A4:F4,"?*")=0 in the formula. What does the "?*" do? Just curious. Have used the wild car * but haven't used the interrogation mark (another wild card I believe?) very often and if you can help to understand it please.

Thank you

I know this an old thread, however I have found it extremely useful so I am hoping someone can help me out.

I am looking for an updated list that I can use, as I am finding that the file linked by the OP is too far out of date to make it usable for what I need. To put it simply, I have a team of over 50 people dotted around the UK, and I have used the Postcode Distance Calculator to enable me to see who lives closest to a location when I input the first half of the postcode. However if I do the same on Google and just input the first half of each postcode it is invariably a different distance, this is most likely down to road changes etc. So I was wondering if anyone knows of how to get hold of an updated list, and more importantly how I would add it to this one.

Again many thanks for posting this Pete