Help CR4 with international postal codes

For the UK, I tried a few I know off the top of my head and got 100% hits, I've added the site to my favourites.

Canada has 6 digit code formatted as "letter number letter - number letter number"

For Canada the data base only recognizes first 3 characters. It is about 95% accurate. I had one error in a rural name.

Will you add Indonesia postal code?

29432 for Batam, Indonesia.

Hi Jusup

It looks like the GeoNames project doesn't have a great way for people to enter postal codes, but I did find this thread on their forum that described how to do it. (You would need to use their editor, and the manual is here.)

I don't want to add the code for Batam myself because I don't feel comfortable saying something that I can't verify as being correct (not that I think you're lying!)

They might really appreciate having input from you, especially since it looks like they have no postal code info for Indonesia right now.

Thanks for helping me evaluate this service.
- Mark

That's a useful tool! It works for Spain. It even found my little village of a few houses! But had trouble with Southampton in the UK which should be an so53-nxx ( n=number, xx=any two letters for closer location)

Southampton? Eh, well... no great loss.

Good morning,

I tried Belgium and it looks great. No problems.

Mercor

Hi from Australia -

Extremely good coverage - much better and more informative than the online sources I have used here (like Australia Post). Very intuitive layout and a surprising level of detail. E.g. in Australia, many small localities share a single postcode - so one postcode often returns several results. I once lived in a small place and often had my mail addressed to the wrong town because many postcode databases just use the major town in the list.

Yours on the other hand includes places I didn't know existed, just down the road!

There are some I tried where an expected result didn't appear. eg Forest Lodge and Glebe both share the postcode 2037. In your database, only Glebe appears. This may be because Forest Lodge has a slightly less official status (I think it is a locality rather than a suburb or some such thing), however it is a correct address within a major city for postal purposes, so should appear in a postcode database.

(btw, I have an excel file of Australian Postcodes - happy to send it on if you want to use it to check against your list).

I'm not sure why, but the geocoding is inaccurate for some localities - good for most that I checked, but out by about 10km or more for some (eg try a search for "Police Point" (nice little beach there if you're visiting) and click on the geocode link - you won't find the place until you scroll the map down.) Where did the codes originate? Often errors creep in on a street level, but surprising to see an error for a whole (albeit very small) town. It seems to have been lumped in with a few others - try the postcode 7116 and several in the list share the same geocode, but they are quite geographically distinct).

Overall terrific - it's the one I'll be using from now on!

Robert

I stumbled upon the GeoNames project when I was searching for international postal codes. I believe that the database is maintained by volunteers who aggregate public sources of this data and who also hand-enter data... the provide an editor that uses Google maps (I think) to help pin-point different geographical things. Pretty cool.

Thanks for the input.
- Mark

Works OK with cities of Argentina.

Regards,

In Spain 03710 returns the town of Calpe or Calp (in Valencian) together with a small assortment of suburbs aroundabout.

Unlike in the UK the code does not pinpoint one side of a street let alone a street.

Works good for Germany,

I also tried a few places in Germany with no failures.

Ihad problems with some UK addresses, but on reflection, I may need to use uppercase letters, so I will check again shortly.

UK postal code RH17 6NY, does not work.

I tested it on Google Earth and it worked correctly.....

Hey Mark, it works for Denmark as well, I tried a few special numbers, I could remember, and no flaws detected, so its a GO from DK.

moe

Don't have Singapore and Philippines?

Hi Mark,

China does not even rate a mention. Does not exist on the drop down menu and none of the Chinese postal codes work using "All Countries". South African ones seem OK, but it does not distinguish between codes for street addresses and post boxes i.e. 4000 and 4001 both return Durban but they are Post Box and Street Address respectively. (Not a big deal - a lot of the stuff goes missing never mind which code you use.)

Hi,

I checked Belgium B2390. The feedback was 100% correct.

Best Regards

hi from chennai,

many postal codes are missing in the chennai city codes. like 600011 and a few which is obvious from the list.

postalcode returns the landmarks in that particular area not the name of the area in many cases. how have you considered? based on landmarks or the area?

will reply on your response,

thanks

Hi

The GeoNames database is something I am considering using... I don't have any affiliation with the project. They do allow "regular people" to provide updates to their database, kind of like how wikipedia works. I believe they are hoping to get volunteers from around the world to help expand and correct their data.

Thanks for your input
- Mark

I tried a few UK post codes & got no results until I realised that you only put in the 1st 3 digits, then it worked OK

I used most of the different postal codes I've lived in. And they all were accurate. Found it interesting that 63116 is used in USA, Mexico & France.

I can give you information re the Philippines:

Manila CPO Ermita is 1000

Makati Commercial Center is 1224.

If you go to: http://zip-codes.philsite.net/provinces.htm it will list the major postal codes for each province.

Go to http://zip-codes.philsite.net/manila.htm for the Manila postal codes.

I've been reading, but couldn't really add much for the UK. It's easy to check the first part of the post code - XXNN which tells you the nearest sorting office area - but to get the remaining NXX it looks like you have to pay to use Royal Mails database. The first XX is usually based on the regional sorting office (eg Canterbury = CT), and the NN usually identifies a town. The second X identifies a particular post workers 'walk', with the last NN narrowing it down to part of a street. Oh, hang on - I just googled a couple of full post codes and the first thing up was a google map of the exact area ! It seems to work even for remote villages.

Say, just how "remote" can a village get there, anyway? We have states with counties larger than your whole country. We have at least one region with fewer than 7,000 people in more than 10,000 square miles. We have towns of single-digit populations and towns only reachable by horse/mule or helicopter, and some only by boat. I have been to a town that has to its nearest neighboring town a drive of >100 miles. We have at least one area of 3.2M acres with no permanent settlements. And compared to Canada, Australia, Brazil, a few others, we are crowded. So how do you (as in the UK) define "remote"?

Remote is anywhere with no pub

So by definition, remote ≡ useless

Here, that's called a dry county.

True, luckily there's very few of them.

TOTALLY WRONG!!!

Remote is anywhere with no OPEN pub...............

Therefore, no reason for any sane man to venture there, hence, "remote".

If you use google earth, it takes you to the exact spot anywhere in the UK.

It appears to be a "raster" code that identifies the exact spot, even spots that are not addresses even, similar to latitude & longitude.....and far, far better than Germany when the code just indicates the main town, not by the raster method either.....if its a "sub" town, you are on your own!!!!

.....that reminds me, it's not a good idea to mail something with a partial postcode in the UK. A letter sent to the West End in London, marked W1, is likely to end up in the West Indies. Likewise, missing the County (eg Boston, Norflok) could leave your mail zipping around America.

We typically don't put the county in, just street and number, city, state, and ZIP code. The original 5-digit codes work well enough, but with the newer 4-digit add-on, it gets the identification down to street number or post office box even if all you have is a name and the ZIP code number. Our mail has become frighteningly efficient!

It's similar here - a full postcode ID's a street (usually) or even a section of one, so if nobody has the same name your mail should make it. I wouldn't chance it though. Mail addressed to "The Queen", "Sherlock Holmes", or "Santa Claus" would probably get there without any extra detail.

You need to look at the map of the postal codes, either yours or theirs is probably wrong. If you don't fix it, nobody else will......

I think both are right, if for instance, I get an on-line quote for car insurance & enter my post code & house number I will then have to select between my address and the flat in the old peoples home. The only difference in the postal address is that my address is;

XX something road

sometown

and theirs should be;

XX something house

something road

sometown.

I suspect that the problem is that many companies do not have enough fields in their computer address templates to accept the 'something house' bit so it just gets omitted.

(I don't know why this reply has decided to double space the middle of this message but I can't seem to change it).

Shouldn't theirs read:

XX something house

XX something road

sometown

Without that, it seems to be an incomplete address. Surely the street number can't be the same for both properties?

Or at least "XX something road #XX"

Blocks of flats (aka apartments) are usually known just by a name, eg No 5, Soddem House, Olde Road, could exist along with No 5, Olde Road. Completely different properties, but on the same road and with the same Post Code. In such a situation it pays to be on chatting terms with your postie, that way they'll recognize the Surname and avoid being misled by the address. "<anything> House" is often the name of an apartment block.

I rarely see our postman, they deliver in the daytime when I'm working. I sometimes see them at the weekend but it's not always the same person each time.

Since they made cutbacks and stopped second deliveries, it's all gone to ****. In reality, some people get mail only on a second delivery, whilst others only get a first delivery. It really is just 'luck of the draw'.

UK Postcodes are geographic, unless the postcode lands on a ward or higher level boundary, generally speaking, therefore the postcode is also a raster or geographic code in most cases.

Thus it is generally far more accurate in the UK than post codes in most European countries and I also believe in Canada and the USA, where they are arbitrarily given to various areas, with no geographical reference.

This can be studied in more detail at:-

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/geography/postal_geog.asp

Excerpt from the above web link:-

Limitations of using postcodes as a geographic reference

As indicated, postcodes form a compact geographic reference with which the public and businesses are familiar. Linking postal geographies to other geographic units is far from straightforward though as:

In the US, prior to advent of the Zip code, letters would be addressed to a street number and street and to a city, local delivery zone, and state—for example:

Resident

8175 Wide Blvd

Anytown 27 Anystate

With adoption of Zip code through the sixties and into the seventies, regional and municipal codes were prefixed to the local delivery zone and the resulting, 5-digit Zip code was moved over to the right of the State name:

1204 Wide Blvd

Anytown Anystate 75227

In this instance (75227), the first 7 indicates a large region in the south-central US; 5 tells us (tells the Martin Marietta/Lockheed Martin sorter) that it's a subregion in and around Dallas/Ft.Worth metro area in northeast Texas; the first "2" narrows it down to the City of Dallas; and 27 (still) describes a local, carrier-delivery zone (a post office) situated in the southeast portion of that city to the north of Bruton Rd and east of St. Augustine Road. The national regional codes are arrayed geographically (in similar fashion as the odd-numbered "US" & Interstate highway systems) from east to west...with low numbers (e.g., 0, 1, ...) located along the NE Atlantic seaboard, and high numbers (e.g., 9) along the west coast (WA, OR, CA).

The local delivery zones were further subdivided under the "Zip-plus" system augmentation introduced during the eighties...so that an address could be localized down to a particular post office box (either by box number or box proxy number) or to a delivery sub zone within the local delivery zone—and, no, the plus suffix does not specify an individual resident's street number...except perhaps in the case of a very large, very spread-out business concern or a government agency.

The US postal delivery service also comprises the remnants of the old, Rural-Free-Delivery (RFD) routing system, although most of those addresses formerly denoted by, say, "Rte such-and-such number" have by now been incorporate within the Zip code system. (In some instances, the old RFD route number or a portion of a street number will be appended to the Zip-Plus code...such as: 95827+930470: "deliver to the street number ending in "0" on old rural route 7, in the zip-plus subzone 9304, in the post office zone 27, in Sacramento, in the mid central region of Calif, in the western-most postal delivery region of CONUS.)

As you no doubt have surmised, the Zip code system is more significant as it regards automation of routing than any human discernment purpose. In the US it has now become possible for a mail piece, once posted, to arrive at its addressee having only been touched by the final delivery carrier. But, therein lies another kind of rub; one which takes us back to my mention of Lockheed Martin—yes, the big defense contractor—which has been USPS's sole-source sorting equipment provider for quite some time.

Early on in the development of automated mail routing, the then still limited capability of character and handwriting recognition made it necessary for mail-reading sorters to work in tandem with live keyboard operators. (Some US readers might remember this as the time during which citizens were admonished to eliminate commas between city and state, and always print city and state in "all caps.") Whenever machine difficulty reading an address was encountered, the piece would be kicked out and conveyed before a typist whose job it was to read and type in a genuine, machine readable address...thence back the piece went into the general sort and routing. Recently, with great improvements in character recognition, the human assistant has been largely eliminated; or rather the job she once did is now done by Lockheed's equipment...discernible as text and bar coding printed and affixed on a sticker placed under the handwritten address.

Even though the USPS's 3-day CONUS delivery guarantees of the nineties have long since been abandoned, Martin's mail sorting/routing equipment still moves most mail very efficiently. However, as would be expected, when technology makes a mistake and there's no human to help, strange things can happen...such as a mail piece's delivery time being much longer, not shorter. Such was the case recently when a properly addressed envelope bearing a gift to a relative about 1600 miles away (as the crow flies) did not arrive until it had travelled about 4800 miles (from our house to her local post office, back to our house, then to our local office, back to her local post office and finally to her apartment box), arriving over a month-and-a-half overdue.