I was searching for a list of neighboring/bordering/adjacent states for each USA state.
I wasn’t able to find any open data, so I decided to create my own list using the following sources:
- http://theincidentaleconomist.com/wordpress/list-of-neighboring-states-with-stata-code/
- http://www.john.geek.nz/2009/01/sql-tips-list-of-us-states/
- http://askville.amazon.com/Trivia-state-bordered-states/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=3941039
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_date_of_statehood
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Washington,_D.C.
=> Feel free to verify, contribute and reuse my file: neighbors-states.csv
Notes:
- The SQL script was created for SQL Server 2008.
Possible improvements:
- Add a column called “IsApproximativeNeighbor” in the table “NeighborStates” to define properly the relation between Alaska and Washington state even if there is no common border.
Off topic:
- At first, I wanted to use MySQL but I discovered that MySQL constraint implementation still is incomplete: “the CHECK clause is parsed but ignored by all storage engines”. See http://bugs.mysql.com/bug.php?id=3464 and http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/create-table.html.
- Maybe some of you remember the song from this cartoon: Animaniacs video of Wakko’s famous 50 State Capitols song.
- By the way, I never been to the USA and this list give some motivation to visit USA!