# API extract for state\_place\_name?

**URL:** <https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/api-extract-for-state-place-name/76292>\
**Category:** General\
**Created:** [March 2, 2026, 9:21pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/api-extract-for-state-place-name/76292 "2026-03-02T21:21:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![deedesie](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/deedesie/32/2444_2.png) [@deedesie](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/deedesie)\
**Post date:** [March 2, 2026, 9:21pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/api-extract-for-state-place-name/76292/1 "2026-03-02T21:21:26Z")

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Newbie here, ran a python script for a basic python script to extract some butterfly information (basic columns) but also wanted ‘state\_place\_name’ to get the provinces in Canada but it is not working. Tried place\_admin1\_name but that is not working either. Any ideas? thanks!

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**Author:** ![jwidness](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9d8465/32.png) [@jwidness](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/jwidness)\
**Post date:** [March 2, 2026, 9:58pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/api-extract-for-state-place-name/76292/2 "2026-03-02T21:58:05Z")

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Observations don’t store the name of the country/province/state/etc. where they are located, they store the place\_ids as a list of integers. You can either take the list of integers from an observation and ask the api for further information about those places, or what I would suggest is to download the full list of iNat places ([http://www.inaturalist.org/places/inaturalist-places.csv.zip](http://www.inaturalist.org/places/inaturalist-places.csv.zip)) and find the place\_ids that you’re interested in and work with the ids. See [https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/list-of-u-s-county-codes/50439](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/list-of-u-s-county-codes/50439) for a similar question and method.

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**Author:** ![jwidness](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9d8465/32.png) [@jwidness](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/jwidness)\
**Post date:** [March 2, 2026, 10:00pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/api-extract-for-state-place-name/76292/3 "2026-03-02T22:00:33Z")

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Oh actually, are you talking about data you got from [https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/export](https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/export) rather than from an API query?  
If so, you want to export with place\_state\_name selected.

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/inaturalist/original/3X/9/a/9a2a2bc9ec133ff5a8763de899b3e51308e26871.png)

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**Author:** ![pisum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/91b2a8/32.png) [@pisum](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/pisum)\
**Post date:** [March 3, 2026, 2:51am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/api-extract-for-state-place-name/76292/4 "2026-03-03T02:51:40Z")

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this (and the rest of the thread) may or may not help: [https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/select-observations-to-batch-download-from-list-of-observation-ids/61657/9](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/select-observations-to-batch-download-from-list-of-observation-ids/61657/9)

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**Author:** ![deedesie](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/deedesie/32/2444_2.png) [@deedesie](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/deedesie)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2026, 4:19am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/api-extract-for-state-place-name/76292/5 "2026-03-04T04:19:36Z")

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no, i got the export working and pleased to find the place\_state\_name. I was then trying to replicate that field I got with my export by using the api.

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**Author:** ![deedesie](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/deedesie/32/2444_2.png) [@deedesie](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/deedesie)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2026, 4:46am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/api-extract-for-state-place-name/76292/6 "2026-03-04T04:46:21Z")

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thank you, I will take a look at your suggestion.

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/inaturalist/original/2X/7/7831452cf7f0d653ff1ffd34176334b7ef1b6a17.png) [@system](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/system)\
**Post date:** [May 3, 2026, 4:47am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/api-extract-for-state-place-name/76292/7 "2026-05-03T04:47:06Z")

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Closed on May 3, 2026, 4:47am UTC

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