Canadian Postal Codes

As part of our move into Canada the zip code file has been changed to record Canadian style postal codes.  The zip field is a ten byte alpha field, so one could always enter such a code, but previously, if the entry wasn’t a number, no data would be stored tying that entry to a specific city and state/province.

Canadian postal codes contain six characters, with two blocks of three, sometimes printed with a space between them.  For example, Y1A2V1 directs mail to Whitehorse, in the Yukon Territory.  The first digit, the Y, signifies the province (Yukon).  The second digit is always 0 or 1 and indicates whether the destination is rural or urban.  The third digit specifies which major rural or urban entity, while the trailing 3 digits of the code point to a final local destination.

We’ve also added Country to State Maintenance in the posting codes.  This is to allow us to add the country to mailing addresses, such as on invoices, checks or statements, if a client so desires, without having to add that to maintenance of the addresses in customers and vendors.