On Thu, Apr 1, 2010 at 1:01 PM, Frederik Ramm <[email protected]> wrote: > Brian Quinion wrote: >> boundary=street_postal_code | district_postal_code | city_postal_code >> street_postal_code = 425253 > > I'm having difficulties in grasping this concept. In Germany we have > 5-digit post codes, and the associated regions vary in size depending on > how densely populated an area is. So a five-digit code might sometimes > encompass a whole region, sometimes a town, sometimes just a quarter. > That doesn't technically make them different kinds of post codes, and > any labeling like "street/district/city" would be purely the mapper's guess.
Wikipedia tells me that partial Canadian Postal codes are useful to the post office[1]. In K1A 0B1 - K is the postal district, K1A is the Forward Sortation Area and 0B1 is the Local Delivery Unit. Sounds like "internal use only" to me. > Are there really countries where if you ask someone for their post code > they will reply "do you mean my street post code or my district post code"? In my experience, in Canada folks will only answer with their complete 6-digit postal code (If they know it at all.) In the US, Zip Codes changed from 5 numeric digits to 9 numeric digits in 1983[2]. In my experience I am much more likely to hear just the old 5-digit Zip Code rather than the Zip+four that could be considered the official zip code in conversation. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_codes_in_Canada [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zip_codes _______________________________________________ talk mailing list [email protected] http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk
