Return list of countries and cities

[unabl4]

I know it is not directly related to this particular gem, but it would be quite nice to have all the cities and countries fetched from the .dat file, to be usable, for example, in forms (select fields). Just to avoid duplication in code / databases.

[cjheath]

I think the only way to do it would be a full scan of the data file, due to the way the data is indexed. You couldn't extract for example the towns in a certain state without scanning the whole file, I don't think. Still think it's a good idea?

[unabl4]

Ugh. Sounds scary :) What would be the best option then ? Use GeoLityCity in .csv ?

[cjheath]

You could load the CSV into a database table, which would mean you could index it to work the way you want it to. The .dat file is really just set up for searching by IP address.