We brought our address expert to this presentation to go over the details and most need-to-know information for addresses. If you're dealing with mailing, shipping, or addresses in any way, you'll want to take a look at these slides. You can view the recording that these slides are from here: https://youtu.be/Bz4glYpFBSk And learn more about Smarty here: https://www.smarty.com/

2. Topical Overview
● Standardization and Validation
● Address Anatomy
● ZIP Codes
○ ZIP5
○ ZIP9
○ ZIP12
○ Special ZIP Codes
● Geocoding

3. Validation
● There are various definitions of a
“valid address”
○ A parking lot address might be valid
for a real estate developer, but not for
package delivery
● USPS Valid Address
● Parcel Valid, non-deliverable
address (parking lot)
● Non-USPS Valid Address
Ensuring that a given address is valid for your use
case

4. Standardization
● Ensuring that addresses are written in a standard way
○ Essential for data blending and parsing addresses well
● Improperly standardized addresses can cause significant problems
● Examples:
○ 111-17 113th St, Queens, NY
○ 380 W 2880 S, South Salt Lake, UT
○ 121 E Victory Rd Apt G-503, Meridian, ID
○ 0121 East Victory Road Apartment G503, Meridian, Idaho

5. Address Anatomy
Here are some addresses standardized by the USPS standards
Primary
Number
Pre
Direction
Street
Name
Street
Suffix
Post
Direction
Secondary
Designator
Secondary
Number
City State Zip
121 E Victory Rd APT G-503 — — —
111 113th St 17 — — —
380 W 2880 S — — —

6. ZIP Codes
● Important points for ZIP Codes
○ The primary purpose of ZIP Codes is to deliver mail
○ ZIP Codes can be useful for a variety of things (identifying addresses, geographic location,
etc.) but has exceptions and severe limitations, because it is not their primary purpose
10987 - 6543 - 21 - 4
ZIP 5
Delivery Point Barcode /
Delivery Point Check Digit
Delivery Point Digits /
ZIP 11
ZIP 9 /
ZIP+4

7. ZIP5 (Area Code)
● Corresponds Roughly to a
geographic region
● However, ZIP Codes are
delivery tools, not shapes
● ZIP Codes can (and do)
overlap areas and cross
state/county boundaries.

8. ZIP9
● Corresponds roughly to a
local grouping of addresses
● Often corresponds to a street
segment
● In apartment buildings, can
correspond to a single
building or floor

9. Delivery Point Barcode (ZIP12)
● Digits 10 and 11 refer to a specific delivery point within a ZIP 9
○ In most cases, a full ZIP11 refers to a specific house or apartment
● The final digit is a check-digit
○ It doesn’t convey any information by itself
○ Used to prevent mistakes like copying errors
○ With the ZIP 11, called the Delivery Point Barcode

10. Special ZIP Codes
● Unique ZIP Codes
○ These zip codes are not handled by USPS
○ They ship the mail to one spot, then deliver the mail internally
○ Any address in a unique zip code is valid by the USPS
● PO-box ZIP Codes
○ These are zip codes that don’t have a geographical area, just contain PO-boxes at the post
office
● Military ZIP Codes
○ These are like a mix between unique zips nd PO-box zips
○ Not necessarily a geographical area, they deliver mail to a point, then the military handles it
● Non-postals
○ The USPS doesn’t handle every address, these addresses are called non-postals

11. Geocoding
● There are different precisions to
Geocodes
○ Rooftop: Most accurate, on
top of the building
○ Parcel: Property
○ Zip9: Street Segment Center
○ Zip5: Regional Area
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12. Get Accurate Address Data
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The Address Data Glossary
smarty.com/articles/glossary