Search Companies API - Search results

[abaratta]

We are using Company House - Search Company API to get information about a company with company name and during our testing we have noticed for the company name : APPLE we are getting over 4000 results. Looks like it’s returning us results for company name with contains

Is there any way we can reduce the results for such companies? And add in the company_status as active to reduce the number of results

[MArkWilliams]

The API is not intended for data harvesting...

There is only one APPLE ltd, the first in the results.
You need to parse the returned list and do your own matching.
If you supply the full company name, the search will give you that company name plus other 'matches'.
So your solution may be one of:-
- use a bulk product like http://download.companieshouse.gov.uk/en_output.html
- use the full correct company name for searches
- use the company number and get the data directly from https://api.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/{company_number}

[avinashb]

Hi @MArkWilliams , it looks valid but for a companies house search - Disqualified officer , if the exact match does exists for that query string for example "Avinash Bobba" , would it return it as the first results . Is that how the api design of ordering do work

[MArkWilliams]

Yes, if there is an exact match it will be first, followed by other matches of a lower score.

[avinashb]

Thank you so much for your time and reply .

As you know , we limited up to only 100 records in single hit , if there is a chance of more than 100 matching results with officer name "Avinash Bobba"(FirstName+LastName) , do we need to try to hit multiple times and combine the obtained result parse the result based on the rule for our matching criteria . Or is there any different way which can be supported by Companies House search.

Could you please help me here to understand better on restrictions so that , I can make a solution to these edge cases .