US Address Format & Components Question

[endomorph1]

Seeking a little advice from the US folks on here.

Out of a US address, for example -

Addressee
Street
City
State
Zip
County

What are the separate components (district, locality ?) of the address, and what is / isnt required, and what would be the correct format.

Sorry if this sounds really dumb, but I'm from the UK (not that that is a reason !)

[edited by: lawman at 10:46 am (utc) on Jul 6, 2011]

[tangor]

Usually presented as:

Addressee
Street/PO line 1
Street (if needed) line 2
CITY, STATE ZIP

Regular addresses do not include COUNTY names

[jecasc]

Regular addresses do not include COUNTY names

Which is also true for UK addresses. Unfortunately nobody has told the natives yet. So they keep stuffing all kinds of useless information into the address form I provide in my online shop. House names, county, nearest town...

[Old_Honky]

also true for UK addresses.

How true; from several years experience in taking orders direct from the British Public I would say that 90% of these people either don't know their correct address or deliberately change it because they don't like the name of their post town (eg Croydon or Slough often are omitted). I always check every address on the Royail Mail or Carriers web site. It saves time eventually.

[piatkow]

There was a campaign in Denham, Bucks (upmarket home of many actors) a few years ago to have their post town changed because Uxbridge was too down market.

There is a web site specifically on this topic run by a guy called Frank. (that should let you find it without breaking the rules here)

[lucy24]

House names, county, nearest town...

House names have never caught on in the US. Unless it's something like "The Biltmore Mansion" where the postal service is not going to have trouble finding it anyway.

The ZIP code is 5+4 digits but most humans don't know-- and aren't expected to know-- the second part, so just read the first 5. Do be unambiguous about where the apartment/suite number goes, so users are clear on whether it's part of the street address or a separate box.

Streets have a colossal number of different designations-- Road, Way, Avenue etc etc-- and many towns have more than one (for example "Glen Street" and "Glen Avenue", and let's not even talk about NYC), so make sure that gets recorded correctly.

Some streets will have a N/S/E/W extension if the town grew in a different direction from what the founders envisioned.

You probably know that letters and numbers are often used as street names. If your address-handling is processed by a computer, make sure NSEW aren't auto-converted into North, South etc unless there is more to the name. This is perfectly serious. I used to live on E Street and would get (or fail to get) mail that had been auto-converted into East Street-- which happens to be an actual street name in my town.

[johnhh]

There was a campaign in Denham, Bucks

Then you have all the people in Middlesex ( which no longer exists ) moaning as well. a non-existant county that still exists according to the Post Office, and don't get me started on Avon ( which people still think exists)

I actually took a call from someone who did not believe a place on Cornwall had a PL ( Plymouth ) post code ...

I actually still put a county on the letters I send.

[Status_203]

The trouble with using your post town in the UK is that, while the Post Office might understand it, a lot of couriers end up trying to find you in the post town rather than where you actually live. At least using the county gives you a proper hierarchy.

(Although having said that, my only option on many forms is still a county that no longer exists. Come on ecomm people, update your data, it's been 15 years!)

[pageoneresults]

I always find topics about address formatting to be of interest, thanks for starting this.

What are the separate components of the address?

I'm going to approach this from a Microdata perspective. For US Addresses...

streetAddress
The Street Address

postOfficeBoxNumber
The PO Box Number

addressLocality
The Locality e.g. City for US

addressRegion
The Region e.g. State for US

postalCode
The Postal Code e.g. Zip Code for US

addressCountry
The Country e.g. US (ISO 3166-1 2 Letter Country Code)

Thing > Intangible > StructuredValue > ContactPoint > PostalAddress
[Schema.org...]

What is/isn't required, and what would be the correct format.

I follow the USPS Standard Address Format.

Addressing Tips and Tools
[USPS.com...]

As far as requirements go, you'll usually need...

Name
Street Address or PO Box
City
State
Zip Code

In some instances, you may have...

Name
Street Address 1
Street Address 2 < Optional
City
State
Zip Code

Formatting? If you're printing a mailing label or similar...

Name
Street Address
City State Zip

USPS prefers clean and simple using standardized abbreviations and no punctuation. We verify against the USPS db and cleanse address entries to meet the standards. To see an example of how an address is formatted when working with USPS mailing guidelines, go here...

USPS Zip Code Lookup
[Zip4.USPS.com...]

Microdata PostalAddress Example

<div itemprop="address" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/PostalAddress">
<span itemprop="name">Google Inc</span><br> 
<span itemprop="streetAddress">1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy</span><br>
<span itemprop="addressLocality">Mountain View</span>
<span itemprop="addressRegion">CA</span>
<span itemprop="postalCode">94043-1351</span>
<span itemprop="addressCountry">US</span>
</div>

[edited by: pageoneresults at 4:31 pm (utc) on Jul 7, 2011]

[topr8]

as previously mentioned by piatkow

the ultimate guide to address formats is at

[columbia.edu...]

definitive links are allowed here, so i'm sure it's ok, i used this page when developing a worldwide system and yes i agree with the above comments, ecommerce sites which force incorrect addresses really annoy me,

eg i live in london and i'm regularily asked for my county or state(sic) which i cannot leave blank - london is a distinct entity it has no county or state.

[pageoneresults]

e.g. I live in London and I'm regularly asked for my county or state which I cannot leave blank - London is a distinct entity it has no county or state.

I learned this the hard way many years ago. We now serve specific address fields based on country selection which is the first item the user is presented with. Once the country is selected, we then display the appropriate required and optional fields for that country.

[jecasc]

e.g. I live in London and I'm regularly asked for my county or state which I cannot leave blank

I only experience the opposite. I do not display a field for county - yet UK customers always squeeze it in somewhere.

[lucy24]

Oh, and watch out for the Canadianism "community". It does not mean you are a goth or a Ukrainian immigrant or you live in a sociable trailer park; it means your specific, named municipality. Large Canadian businesses know this and will ask for your "city" instead, but smaller ones don't.

[graeme_p]

Once the country is selected, we then display the appropriate required and optional fields for that country.

That is the right way to do it - but its so rare that I am impressed when I see it.

[piatkow]

me too, I know of a web hosting company that insisted on a US state being entered for every account.

I could just about understand it from an American company but this was in Canada.

[g1smd]

e.g. I live in London and I'm regularly asked for my county or state which I cannot leave blank

I only experience the opposite. I do not display a field for county - yet UK customers always squeeze it in somewhere.

Larger cities don't have a "county" as such. Smaller cities, and towns and villages do.