CLGeocoder returns wrong results when city name is equal to some country's name (and not only)

Question

In one of my apps I need to add an ability to find a city by its name. I am using CLGeocoder to achieve this and I want it to have a behaviour identical to iOS

Answer 1

I was facing this problem too here on Brazil, só I made a terrible solution for that:

public func getLatLonFrom(address: String, completion:@escaping ((CLLocation?, NSError?)->Void)) {
        //LCEssentials.printInfo(title: "LOCATION", msg: "CEP: \(address)")
        let geoCoder = CLGeocoder()
        let params: [String: Any] = [
            CNPostalAddressPostalCodeKey: address,
            CNPostalAddressISOCountryCodeKey: "BR"
        ]
        geoCoder.geocodeAddressString(address) { (placemarks, error) in
            //LCEssentials.printInfo(title: "LOCATION", msg: "PLACEMARKS FIRST: \(placemarks?.debugDescription)")
            if let locais = placemarks {
                guard let location = locais.first?.location else {
                    let error = NSError(domain: LCEssentials().DEFAULT_ERROR_DOMAIN, code: LCEssentials().DEFAULT_ERROR_CODE, userInfo: [ NSLocalizedDescriptionKey: "Address not found" ])
                    completion(nil, error)
                    return
                }
                completion(location, nil)
            }else{
                geoCoder.geocodeAddressDictionary(params) { (placemarks, error) in
                    //LCEssentials.printInfo(title: "LOCATION", msg: "PLACEMARKS: \(placemarks?.debugDescription)")
                    guard let founded = placemarks, let location = founded.first?.location else {
                        let error = NSError(domain: LCEssentials().DEFAULT_ERROR_DOMAIN, code: LCEssentials().DEFAULT_ERROR_CODE, userInfo: [ NSLocalizedDescriptionKey: "Address not found" ])
                        completion(nil, error)
                        return
                    }
                    completion(location, nil)
                }
            }
        }
    }

I force the Country Code to BR ( Brazil ) and then i can find the address by ZIP CODE. If it return NIL for placemarks on geocodeAddressString then i call the geocodeAddressDictionary and i receive the correct result.
This solution can cover major zip code from BR. It is a mess code, but for now it works.
Future projects i will use Google Maps.