# US State and their Respectives City **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [September 12, 2009, 6:18am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/us-state-and-their-respectives-city/175379 "2009-09-12T06:18:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![salil](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@salil](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/salil)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 6:18am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/us-state-and-their-respectives-city/175379/1 "2009-09-12T06:18:50Z")
Hello all! I need to a implement a sign-up form with US states and city selector. Is there already a helper os something that implements or makes it easier to implement this for Rails.Also when i select the state all the city appears for that state in the other select list. Btw, where could I get a list of US states and US cities? Is there any webservice for that ? Or just copy and paste from somewhere else? Thanks in advance, Salil G. ---
**Author:** ![salil](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@salil](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/salil)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 9:09am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/us-state-and-their-respectives-city/175379/2 "2009-09-12T09:09:24Z")
See if this helps ! > **[\#88 Dynamic Select Menus - RailsCasts](http://railscasts.com/episodes/88-dynamic-select-menus)** > > Short Ruby on Rails screencasts containing tips, tricks and tutorials. Great for both novice and experienced web developers. Dave On Sep 12, 12:18 pm, Salil G. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) ---
**Author:** ![salil](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@salil](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/salil)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2009, 12:13am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/us-state-and-their-respectives-city/175379/3 "2009-09-13T00:13:01Z")
On Sep 12, 12:18 am, Salil G. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Hello all! > > I need to a implement a sign-up form with US states and city selector. > Is there already a helper os something that > implements or makes it easier to implement this for Rails.Also when i > select the state all the city appears for that state in the other select > list. > > Btw, where could I get a list of US states and US cities? Is there > any webservice for that ? Or just copy and paste from somewhere else? Don’t do that - the select that you generate is going to be far too large to be practical. It’s hard to get a clear count of exactly how many cities are involved, but the best estimate I’ve seen places it somewhere around 20,000. An autocompleter might help, but you’ll still have the issue that city data can get stale (new ones are incorporated frequently). You’d be better served using a geocoder to verify that addresses actually match an existing DB (Google Maps, etc) and inquiring with the user if the address doesn’t match. Take a look at the GeoKit gem. –Matt J. ---
**Author:** ![salil](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@salil](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/salil)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 6:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/us-state-and-their-respectives-city/175379/4 "2009-09-14T18:59:43Z")
> FYI, to add some metrics here, I have a list of cities-in-states > that I > sourced from somewhere (US Census site, probably), and that list has > 55,324 entries. I got my data from here. [U.S. 5 Digit ZIP Code Database List - Jun 1, 2023](http://www.zip-codes.com/zip-code-database.asp) The standard version has 29,778 non duplicate cities. > So loading this into a select box, even dynamically, > seems problematic. As the previous poster suggested, use AJAX-based > autocomplete to keep the list of the server side instead. +1. ---
**Author:** ![salil](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@salil](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/salil)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 9:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/us-state-and-their-respectives-city/175379/5 "2009-09-14T21:59:05Z")
> I got my data from here. [U.S. 5 Digit ZIP Code Database List - Jun 1, 2023](http://www.zip-codes.com/zip-code-database.asp) > The standard version has 29,778 non duplicate cities. Some ZIP codes cover multiple cities- i.e., 02573 is Martha’s Vineyard, Tisbury, and Vineyard Haven. So I think we’re talking apples and oranges here. - D ---
**Author:** ![salil](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@salil](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/salil)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2009, 6:01am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/us-state-and-their-respectives-city/175379/6 "2009-09-13T06:01:16Z")
FYI, to add some metrics here, I have a list of cities-in-states that I sourced from somewhere (US Census site, probably), and that list has 55,324 entries. So loading this into a select box, even dynamically, seems problematic. As the previous poster suggested, use AJAX-based autocomplete to keep the list of the server side instead. - D