Q:

Google Maps Geocoder: Return postal_code

I'm using Jquery UI to autocomplete search for an address using Google Maps Geocoder, and when an address is selected it returns the geocode information. Here is the snippet:
$('#address-dropdown').autocomplete({
  //Use geocoder to fetch lat+long values from an address input using google maps API
  source: function(request, response) {
    geocoder.geocode( {'address': request.term }, function(results, status) {
      response($.map(results, function(item) {
        return {
          label: item.formatted_address,
          value: item.formatted_address,
          location: item.geometry.location,
          latitude: item.geometry.location.lat(),
          longitude: item.geometry.location.lng()
        }
      }));
    })
  },

I need to ability to return the uses "postal_code" to check if they live within an allowable area. Here is an example output: http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?address=1601+Main+St+Eaton+Rapids+MI+48864&sensor=false
How could I target the postal_code information?

A:

Look at my example: http://jsfiddle.net/nEKMK/
o is your object.
if (o.results[0].address_components) {
    for (var i in o.results[0].address_components) {
        if (typeof(o.results[0].address_components[i]) === "object" && o.results[0].address_components[i].types[0] == "postal_code") {
            var result = o.results[0].address_components[i].long_name;
        }
    }
}
if (!result) {
    alert("Error, there is no postal code");
} else {
   alert(result);
}

