All I want is some simple example code that shows me how to obtain a latlng element from an inputted zip code OR a city/state.
Here is the function I am using for my work
function getLatLngByZipcode(zipcode) 
{
    var geocoder = new google.maps.Geocoder();
    var address = zipcode;
    geocoder.geocode({ 'address': address }, function (results, status) {
        if (status == google.maps.GeocoderStatus.OK) {
            var latitude = results[0].geometry.location.lat();
            var longitude = results[0].geometry.location.lng();
            alert("Latitude: " + latitude + "\nLongitude: " + longitude);
        } else {
            alert("Request failed.")
        }
    });
    return [latitude, longitude];
}