Properties

Properties are key-value pairs that store descriptive information about geographic sets. They provide a way to attach metadata and filter sets based on specific attributes.

What are Properties?

A property is a key-value pair attached to a set that describes characteristics of that geographic area. Properties can include names, codes, numeric values like population, or any other relevant metadata.

json

"uuid": "80a25c7e-f0de-4be0-be9d-6826ac63c792"

"name": "Zion National Park"

"unit_code": "ZION"

"unit_type": "National Park"

"gnis_feature_id": "1455157"

Common Properties

Different types of geographic sets have different properties. Here are some examples of properties you'll find in pre-loaded sets:

U.S. States

name - Full state name (e.g., "California")
abbreviation - Two-letter code (e.g., "CA")
fips_code - Federal Information Processing Standard code

U.S. Counties

name - County name
state_abbreviation - Parent state code
fips_code - County FIPS code

National Parks

name - Park name
unit_code - Park identifier code
unit_type - Type of unit (e.g., "National Park")

Countries

name - Country name
iso_a2 - Two-letter ISO code
iso_a3 - Three-letter ISO code

Querying by Properties

Use the properties filter to find sets based on their property values. The most common operator is eq (equals):

json

Property Operators

Properties support various comparison operators for flexible filtering:

eq - Equals (exact match)
ne - Not equals
gt - Greater than (numeric values)
gte - Greater than or equal to
lt - Less than
lte - Less than or equal to
in - Matches any value in a list
contains - String contains substring

Numeric Comparison Example

Find countries with population greater than 100 million:

json

Using the "in" Operator

Find multiple states by name:

json

Properties vs Relationships

Important: Properties should not be used to store information about how one geographic area relates to another. For example, don't add a country property to a state set to indicate which country it belongs to. Instead, use relationships, which are a first-class concept in Deliberate API designed specifically for modeling geographic associations.

Custom Properties

When creating your own geographic sets, you can define any properties that are relevant to your application. Properties can be strings, numbers, booleans, or nested objects, giving you flexibility to model your domain-specific data.