- """Send a single address to the US Census geocoding API. The response
- is a parsed JSON chunk of data with N addressMatches in the result
- section and the details of each match within it. Returns None on error.
+ """Send a single address to the US Census geocoding API in order to
+ lookup relevant data about it (including, if possible, its
+ lat/long). The response is a parsed JSON chunk of data with N
+ addressMatches in the result section and the details of each match
+ within it.
+
+ Args:
+ address: the full address to lookup in the form: "STREET
+ ADDRESS, CITY, STATE, ZIPCODE". These components may be
+ omitted and the service will make educated guesses but
+ the commas delimiting each component must be included.
+
+ Returns:
+ A parsed json dict with a bunch of information about the
+ address contained within it. Each 'addressMatch'
+ in the JSON describes the details of a possible match.
+ Returns None if there was an error or the address is
+ not known.