[OSM-talk] Several map features at the same place

[Tom Hughes]

In message <fde0v3$526$1 at sea.gmane.org>
        Alex Mauer <hawke at hawkesnest.net> wrote:

> Sascha Silbe wrote:
>> Hi!
>> 
>> How are several map features at the same place, e.g. a building with a
>> bakery, a bank and a police station, represented?
>> Several adjacent nodes? Or a single one? If the latter, how are features
>> with the same key (but different value) handled?
>> From the Map Features page [1], I'd guess multiple values for the same
>> key are separated by semicolons (see amenity=bank), but neither the
>> Elements page [2] nor the Data Primitives page [3] mentions that.
>
> semicolons, yes.  Technically, it's possibly to assign the same key
> multiple times, but I don't know that any editor software allows it due
> to concerns over misuse of the feature.  It should probably be allowed
> though.

No, no, no. Semicolons are the one thing you must never, ever put in a
tag or a tag value, at least for nodes and segments.

The reason is that the database uses them to separate tags so you will
wind up getting rubbish back if you do it.

Tom

-- 
Tom Hughes (tom at compton.nu)
http://www.compton.nu/