Retrieve places contained within another place

The =DCPLACESIN formula returns lists of child places from a list of parent Place DCIDs. It only returns children with a place type that matches the place_type parameter, such as State, Country, and so on.

Formula

=DCPLACESIN(dcids, place_type)

Required arguments

  • dcids: A single place node or range of cells representing place nodes, identified by their DCIDs.
  • place_type: The type of the contained child place nodes to filter by. For example,City and Countyare contained within State. For a full list of available types, see the place types page.

Returns

A list of child place DCIDs of the specified place DCIDs, of the specified place type.

Examples

This section contains examples of using the =DCPLACESIN formula to return places contained in another place.

Note: Be sure to follow the instructions for for enabling the Sheets add-on before trying these examples.

Example 1: Retrieve a list of counties in Delaware

To retrieve a list of counties in Delaware:

  1. Place your cursor in the cell where you want to add the DCID for Delaware; in this case, cell A2.
  2. Enter the Delaware DCID of geoId/10.
  3. (Optional) In cell B2, enter DCGETNAME(A2) to retrieve Delaware’s name from the DCID in cell A2.
  4. In cell C2, enter the formula =DCPLACESIN(A2, "County"). The DCIDs for the three Delaware counties populate column C.
  5. In cell D2, enter the formula DCGETNAME(C2:C4) to retrieve the names of the counties.

DCPLACESIN example 1

Example 2: Retrieve congressional districts in Alaska and Hawaii

To retrieve the congressional districts in Alaska and Hawaii:

  1. In cell A2, enter geoId/02 for the DCID of Alaska and in cell A3, enter geoId/15 for the DCID of Hawaii.
  2. (Optional) In cell B1, enter =DCGETNAME(A2:A3) to retrieve the names of Alaska and Hawaii into column B.
  3. In cell C2, enter =DCPLACESIN(A2:A3, "CongressionalDistrict") to retrieve the DCIDs of the congressional districts.
  4. In cell D2, enter =DCGETNAMES(C2:C4) to retrieve the names of the congressional districts.

DCGETPLACESIN example 2

Error responses

If a DCID does not exist, the =DCPLACESIN formula returns a value of #REF!. For example, because the geoId/123123123 DCID does not exist, an error of #REF! is returned to cell B1 in the following sheet:

DCPLACESIN error example

If you provide an empty cell for a DCID, the =DCPLACESIN formula returns a value of #ERROR!, as shown show in the following image:

DCPLACESIN error example

Finally, if you provide an invalid property to the =DCPLACESIN formula, an error of #REF! is also returned, as follows:

DCPLACESIN error example

Page last updated: July 10, 2025 • Send feedback about this page