Mapping a location to an area

A method comprising:

• a) receiving, by an apparatus, coordinates of a location;
• b) selecting, by the apparatus, an object of a first layer of a tree structure based on the received coordinates;
• c) determining, by the apparatus, whether data assigned to the selected object comprises an identifier of an area or a pointer to a set of objects of a respective next layer of the tree structure, wherein each object represents a region and wherein a region represented by an object of any layer but the first layer is a sub-region of a region represented by an object of the preceding layer;
• d) if the data comprises a pointer to a set of objects, selecting, by the apparatus, one of the objects from the set of objects based on the received coordinates and continuing with action c);
• and
• e) otherwise, if the data comprises an identifier of an area, reading, by the apparatus, the data comprising the identifier and providing the identifier as a result of a mapping of a location to an identifier of an area.

An apparatus comprising at least one processor and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause an apparatus at least to perform:

• a) receive coordinates of a location;
• b) select an object of a first layer of a tree structure based on the received coordinates;
• c) determine whether data assigned to the selected object comprises an identifier of an area or a pointer to a set of objects of a respective next layer of the tree structure, wherein each object represents a region and wherein a region represented by an object of any layer but the first layer is a sub-region of a region represented by an object of the preceding layer;
• d) if the data comprises a pointer to a set of objects, select one of the objects from the set of objects based on the received coordinates and continue with action c);
• and
• e) otherwise, if the data comprises an identifier of an area, read the data comprising the identifier and provide the identifier as a result of a mapping of a location to an identifier of an area.