Articles
USPS Address Verification | Pros and Cons
Learn how to verify and standardize addresses with USPS, understand its limitations and see better options.
What are ZIP+4 Codes?
ZIP+4 Codes are the last 4 digits of a nine-digit ZIP Code. A nine-digit ZIP Code is made of two parts.
County FIPS Codes
How to lookup county FIPS Codes by address, ZIP Code and city. County FIPS Codes are 5-digit numbers that identify each county in the United States.
How Government Services Benefit from Address Data Intelligence
With millions of addresses in the US alone, it can be a pain to ensure that your database is accurate. See how Smarty ensures accuracy for the city of Miami.
Address Line 1 Meaning, Uses, Placement, and Examples
Address Line 1 contains house numbers, street names, and suffixes, among other data points. We've compiled all you need to know here, check it out now!
Google Address Validation API | What Google Isn't Telling You
Check out how Google's address validation API stacks up against Smarty's legendary and lightning-fast address validation API. We have all you need here!
Address Autocomplete
Address Autocomplete is a feature that suggests street addresses to users as they type an address into...
Address Cleansing
Address cleansing is the collective process of standardizing, correcting and then validating a...
What is Address Correction
Address Correction is the process of reviewing postal addresses for accuracy and completeness and...
What Are Address Data Intelligence Benefits for Government Services
Government agencies benefit from address data intelligence through address verification...
What is Address Exception Handling
Address Exception Handling is the proactive process of managing addresses not found in an...
What Are Address False Positives
Address false positives are dangerous for businesses because it can lead to lost...
Address Line 1 Meaning, Uses, Placement, and Examples
Address Line 1 should contain the building or house number, and...
Address line 2, Uses, Placement, and Examples
An address field that allows users to add secondary address information such as...
What is Address Parsing
Address parsing is the process of taking an address or a string of text and breaking that address into...
What is Latency
Network Latency is simply referring to the delay in communication across different...
Address Standardization and Validation
Address standardization and validation are two of the main services Smarty provides.
Address Verification Glossary
The process of changing addresses to adhere to USPS standards. The USPS defines a standardized...
AVS vs. Address Validation: What's the Difference?
It's easy to explain the difference between AVS and address validation.
Batch Geocode or Batch Geocoding
To batch geocode, or perform batch geocoding, is the process of uploading a spreadsheet or list of...
Best Address Validation Services Software and Tools
Address validation software can be offered in many forms depending on your needs and...
County FIPS Codes
County FIPS Codes are 5-digit numbers used to designate each county across the United States. FIPS Codes...
Data Consolidation & Merging Datasets Using Addresses
Data Consolidation is the process of combining an organization's data into a single...
Finding a Quality Address Validation API
There are two main qualities that will help you determine if an address validation API is a good...
Free Knowledge
Knowledge is important. In some mathematical representations, it's equal to power. It's the difference...
Geocoding
Geocoding is the process of finding geographical coordinates for an address or place that is in...,
How to Find a County By Using a ZIP Code
Every mailing address is located within a specific county AND a specific ZIP Code. Therefore...
How to use APIs for Address Validation, Standardization and more
An address API is an application programmatic interface (API) that processes postal addresses.
Google Address Validation API
How does Google's address validation API stacks up against Smarty's legendary and lightning-fast...
How to Validate an Address Using [Programming Language of Your Choice]
A lot of programmers want to know how to validate an address using Regex, JavaScript, .Net, PHP...
How to Write a Mailing Address - Format + Examples
Writing a mailing address is dictated by the mailing address format for your country and....
LACSLink®
LACSLink® matches addresses against a list of rural route, highway route, and box number addresses...
What is Personally Identifiable Information
PII (Personally Identifiable Information) is any information that permits the identification...
What are PO Box–Only ZIP Codes
Is there a list of ZIP Codes where the USPS doesn't deliver to physical addresses? Yes.
Rejected address? What does that mean?
I just ran some rejected addresses. What does that mean?
What are Unique ZIP Codes
Some organizations (such as large businesses, universities, or government agencies) receive...
Whas it USPS CASS Cycle O
USPS CASS Cycle O is the USPS's foundational system for ensuring the accuracy and precision of...
Validation / Verification
Address validation is the process of checking a mailing address against an authoritative database...
What are Geocodes & what is Geocoding?
A geocode is the GPS coordinates (or the latitude and longitude) of a physical address. Geocoding is the...
What Are Postal Codes?
Postal codes are strings of numbers (and sometimes letters) that help postal services determine where...
What are Service Level Agreements?
An SLA (Service Level Agreement) is a part of a standardized service contract in which specific...
What are URLs?
URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator, and is a way to reference a resource like a web page on...
What are ZIP+4 Codes?
ZIP+4 Codes are the last 4 digits of a nine-digit ZIP Code. A nine-digit ZIP Code is made of two parts.
What is Address Standardization?
Address standardization is the process of formatting an address so that it matches the approved format...
What is a National Address Database
A National Address Database is a database that contains a list of addresses for delivery points within...
What is an "Address Lookup"?
An Address Lookup is the process of checking an address against an authoritative database to verify if...
What is an API?
API is short for "Application Program Interface". An API is a set of programmatic instructions that...
What is an "Inactive" Address?
The US Postal Service labels some addresses "no-stat." At Smarty, we call them "inactive."
What is Data Governance?
Data Governance is a set of principles and standards that dictate the organization and unification of...
What are Decimal Degrees
Decimal Degrees are a way to express latitude and longitude coordinates...
What is Canada Post?
Canada Post is the Canadian equivalent of the USPS in the United States. They serve as the postal...
What is CASS Certification?
The CASS (Coding Accuracy Support System) certification process was designed by the USPS in...
What is CASS Processing?
What is CASS? Coding Accuracy Support System (CASS) is a certification system from the...
What is CASS?
CASS stands for The Coding Accuracy Support System (CASS). It's a tool created and used by the...
What is County Data?
A county is the largest geographic division of local government. According to the National association...
What is Delivery Point Validation (DPV)?
Delivery Point Validation™ (DPV®) is the process of verifying that an address is actually deliverable...
What is Deutsche Post?
Deutsche Post AG, also known as Deutsche Post DHL, is Germany's primary postal delivery service.
What is HTTP?
HTTP stands for "HyperText Transfer Protocol," and it's the computer communication protocol used...
What is International Address Validation?
International address validation is the process of comparing a non-US address against an...
What is La Poste and the French Postal System?
Postal codes in France are similar to ZIP Codes in the United States. For example, the postal code/ZIP...
What is NCOA (National Change of Address) Certification?
NCOALink or NCOA (National Change of Address) is a data set containing approximately 160 million...
What is RDI, and Where Can I Find It?
RDI stands for "Residential Delivery Indicator". It tells you if a mailing address is a residential or business...
What is Royal Mail?
Royal Mail plc is the primary postal service in the United Kingdom. It provides postal delivery...
What is Reverse Geocoding?
Reverse geocoding starts with a latitude and longitude point, and gives you back the corresponding street address...
Where Is Your Error?
Despite best efforts, errors happen. It can be helpful to know where those errors are happening.
Why Address Standardization during Data Entry is Essential to Quality Data
Many problems with the quality of address data can be eliminated by simply validating and...
Why Is Address Verification Important?
Before you can understand why address verification is important to you and your company, you must...
Address Data Management "Like a Boss"
If you need to collect address data for your business, then you need that data to be accurate.
Address List Processing
A large address list can be a valuable asset or a burdensome anchor for your business.
Can I Validate an Address While Using Google Maps' addMarker?
No. How was that for a fast answer? addMarker is a function of Google's...
Data Management: When Good Data Goes Bad
"Data management" is the process of facilitating data control and flow, from the data's creation to...
The Difference Between "Mappable" and "Valid"
A "mappable" address is not necessarily a "valid" or officially recognized (mailman-deliverable) address.
Does Google Parse and/or Standardize Addresses?
While Google does a great many things, it may surprise you to learn that Google does NOT parse...
Geocoding APIs: Esri vs Smarty and Google
Geocoding APIs frequently use inconsistent definitions for accuracy. We're going to dispel...,
Google's Geocoding API: Is There Any Good Alternative?
Google's Geocoding API is certainly one of the best known options, when it comes to using an API to...
How Do I Determine if a Suite or Apartment Number Is Valid?
If someone enters an invalid apartment, will that be explained in the data returned?
How Often Should I Re-Verify Addresses?
I'm planning to store the corrected address along with a timestamp indicating when I performed the...
I'm Looking for a ZIP Code API. What Should I Look For?
The USPS ZIP Code API provides developers with comprehensive access to the data found in the...
International Geocoding: Around the GPS in 80 Days
Geocoding uses a postal address to identify the GPS lat/long coordinates of that location. International...
Is Move-Update/NCOA Required?
A postal worker at my local post office informed me that I can't mail out a mailing without first doing the...
Is There an Open-Source Address Scrubber?
Slow down a second. Before we go any further, we need to determine two things. First, do you mean...
Is There Any Preference Between a Street Address and Po Box?
From a financial standpoint, the USPS prefers to deliver mail to a PO Box. A letter delivered to a...
Maintaining Data Security with Smarty
Smarty doesn't sell, distribute, persist the storage of, or in any way abuse your data. You can read all...
My Geocode Service Won't Give Me ZIP+4 Codes. Why?
So you're using a geocoder, and you want to get the ZIP+4 Code for an address...
PO Box vs. Street Address: Does the USPS Have a Preference?
Does the USPS have a preference? There's no official answer to that, but here's what we do know.
UPS Address Validation Features and Limitations
While the address validation service offered by UPS can be useful, there are several limitations. For..
USPS Address Verification | Pros and Cons
Learn how to verify and standardize addresses with USPS, understand its limitations and see better options.
USPS API and Address Validation
The USPS API is an address validation API provided by the United States Postal Service.
Using Regular Expressions for Street Addresses
Wondering how to use regular expressions for address validation? We get a lot of questions from...
Using Smarty .NET SDK in C#
This article is a companion to the YouTube video produced by Smarty on how to use the...
Using USPS APIs in C#
Do you want to know how to use the USPS API in C#? We'll show you how, and share step-by-step...
Using Smarty PHP SDK
This article is a companion to the YouTube video produced by Smarty on how to use the...
Using USPS APIs in PHP
Do you want to know how to use the USPS API in PHP? We'll show you how, and share step-by-step...
Using Smarty Python SDK
This article is a companion to the YouTube video produced by Smarty on how to use the...
Using USPS APIs in Python
Do you want to know how to use the USPS API in Python? We'll show you how, and share step-by-step...
What Are Some Popular Lat/Long Providers?
If you need latitude/longitude coordinates that are associated with a physical address, what you're looking...
Who Can Validate Addresses for Me?
If you're looking for address validation, a quick Google search brings up a couple noteworthy names.
Why Should I Present the Validated Address Back to My Client for Review?
I've been using your address verification services for a while and the results seem to be...
101 Ways To Use Address Verification - #1: Deduplication - Smarty
Deduplication means finding and removing duplicates. Every database or address list in the world..
401? 402? What does that mean? - Smarty
I'm getting an HTTP status code when I try to use the API. What does it mean?
9-digit ZIP Code (ZIP+4) for Finding Representatives & Legislators - Smarty
If you have a website that lets people lookup U.S. Government legislative districts or find...
9-digit ZIP Codes for Medicare Claims - Smarty
We've had a couple of customers call us about changes that Medicare has made regarding billing.
Address list management - Smarty
So, you've got a list of addresses. That requires some maintenance, especially if you use those....
Append Counties - Smarty
There's a little more to it than you might think. Did you know...?
Append missing ZIP Codes - Smarty
If, for any reason, your list doesn't have ZIP Codes, they can easily be appended with LiveAddress.
Can I get suggestions for apartment info? - Smarty
When attempting to validate an address, is there any way get a suggestion of possible...
Can I use your web service without internet access? - Smarty
I did use the service and it worked well but unfortunately I am not supposed to use a web service in...
Can I validate two addresses in a single form? - Smarty
I have billing and shipping address in single form and i want to implement the address...
Can you provide demographic data about specific addresses? - Smarty
I do prospect research in the development office here, and we're always trying to find new potential donors.
CASS™ Processing - Smarty
CASS™ is a certification system from the United States Postal Service (USPS) for address validation.
Delivery Point Validation (DPV™) - Smarty
Delivery Point Validation™ (DPV®) is the process of verifying that an address is actually deliverable...
Do I need to install anything to use your service? - Smarty
Does your product use software that is installed to my computer?
Do you provide time zone data? - Smarty
I've been using your Live Address API for many years, but I wonder if there could be something added to...
Do you support address verification of US military addresses? - Smarty
For example, when I tried to verify this address through your website I got "invalid address error"
eLOT® - Smarty
eLOT® (Enhanced Line of Travel) was developed by the USPS to allow mailers to sort their mailings...
Free Address Verification - Smarty
As of today, we are now offering completely free address verification to everyone, including...
How can I parse and verify freeform addresses? - Smarty
I receive addresses in a single-line, or freeform, format; they're not split into pieces like most forms...
How can I test the LiveAddress API jQuery Plugin on any website? - Smarty
This is fairly easy using your browser's web inspector tools. Here's a quick video showing...
How can I use autocomplete without the jQuery plugin? - Smarty
I'd like to use the LiveAddress autocomplete feature with my own implementation, and without using...
How do I avoid using localhost as the domain with the Javascript API? - Smarty
I'm the developer doing the integration of Smarty for my company. It's pretty much done...
How do I resolve ambiguous addresses with LiveAddress? - Smarty
I'm getting an error message trying to normalize an address.
How Do I Upload My List of Addresses? - Smarty
In order to upload a list of addresses, first you need to have a free account with us. Once you...
How do I validate the secondary (or unit) number? - Smarty
Does LiveAddress check for apartment number and suite and those types of data?
How much does autocomplete cost? - Smarty
How does autocomplete fit into the LiveAddress billing? What does it cost?
How To Print Barcodes (In Microsoft Word 2007) - Smarty
Printing barcodes for mailing envelopes speeds up delivery time andif done correctlyreduces postage prices.
How To Print Barcodes (In OpenOffice.org 3.1) - Smarty
Printing barcodes for mailing envelopes speeds up delivery time andif done correctlyreduces postage prices.
How To Use LiveAddress API On Your Website - Smarty
Implementing LiveAddress API on your website may seem like a challenge if you are new HTML...
LiveAddress API Field Definitions - Smarty
This guide is about understanding the response payload from the API To learn how to obtain a response...
LiveAddress API Outage - Smarty
Last Thursday morning, October 14, we experienced a significant address verification outage...
LiveAddress API Samples - Smarty
Sometimes the best way to learn a new API is to hit the ground running. Or, as Tony Stark says...
LiveAddress API with Javascript - Smarty
Making requests to LiveAddress via Javascript is easy: just follow REST endpoint documentation Let's look...
LiveAddress API's REST endpoint - Smarty
If you can already make requests, see how to parse the JSON/XML response.
NCOALink® - Smarty
National Change of Address (NCOALink®) is a process whereby postal customers can let the USPS...
New ZIP Codes - Smarty
A recent press release announced that forty-five new ZIP Codes are being added to the USPS data.
QualifiedAddress.com PAVE Certification - Smarty
As many of you know, we have been working on a web-based, on-demand PAVE solution for our customers.
QualifiedAddress.com Provides a "Green",Alternative to Mailing Software - Smarty
The green color that represents QualifiedAddress.com does more than just contribute to an attractive...
RDI - Smarty
RDI means. Basically, it indicates whether an address is a residential or commercial location.
Residential or Commercial? Yep, it's included. - Smarty
The USPS provides a delivery status indicator for each address. They call this the Residential...
Salesforce Plugin Documentation - Smarty
Please be aware that this plugin is no longer supported by Smarty. The plugin and its...
Should addresses be in UPPERCASE? - Smarty
I heard that addresses must be in all caps or UPPERCASE in order to qualify for bulk mailing discounts.
Valid address isn't validating. Can you add it to your database? - Smarty
We have a valid address of a customer that is not being validated by your service...
We know where you live. - Smarty
Seriously, we know where you live. Meaning we could find it with just a GPS device.
What constitutes a "bad address"? - Smarty
Excellent question, and one that we have never specifically answered in writing...
What does an LIL# footnote indicate? - Smarty
Upon reviewing other posts in the forum, I understand that a footnote such as LIA# is the equivalent...
What does the extra info at the end of the address mean? - Smarty
I have an address that you validated but I'm not sure what to make of it. The address is:v5600 Post...
What exactly is a Street Genius? - Smarty
Street Genius, is that like a Jedi?
What happens to non-address information such as ID or phone number? - Smarty
Will I get back the phone number, email address, ID, and other non-address data that I submit...
What IP addresses do we need to access the LiveAddress API? - Smarty
My IT group wants to know what range of IP addresses they need to allow through our firewall to access the
What is a CMRA (private) mailbox? - Smarty
Just what is a CMRA? Why is knowing this important?
What is the response time for the API in milliseconds? - Smarty
How long does it take to get a response from your API once we submit the address for validation?
Where can we get the 13-digit city abbreviation? - Smarty
We have labeling constraints that require that our city names are often 15 characters or less.
Why are rural addresses not included in your database? - Smarty
I am familiar with a rural location that I have been testing on your liveaddress API. It is 30 Ash Grove...
Why is the address data combined onto one line? - Smarty
We've recently started supplying a separate Unit Number field to your address validator. The validator...
Why is the validated address different from the original address? - Smarty
I have checked multiple sources and all my records show that this address is correct. Why then is your...
Why We Started a Web-Based (SaaS) Address Verification Company - Smarty
We're technical guys. We're Internet marketing guys. We have had a lot of success over...
Why would autocomplete suggest invalid addresses? - Smarty
Why does autocomplete sometimes suggest addresses that don't validate?
ZIP4 Code
Out of all the components of a mailing address, the ZIP Code is one of the most essential.
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