Document: FDES-2003-04-01 Revised 04.19.2003
The Data-Exchange Standards Bureau
Multiplex MPX™ format reference
FAST - Field Assignment Standard Type
DATA - Data Acronym Type Assignments
USA - FAST DATA EXCHANGE STANDARD
FDES-2003-04-01 -- data exchange standard
for USPS mailfile exchange
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FDES-2003-04-01 -- all fields type A/N character
NAME FIELD DESCRIPTION AND ATTRIBUTES
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NAM name fully assembled, pre + fir + mid + las + suf 40
COM company name or second personal name or title 40
AD1 extra extra address line, normally not used 40
AD2 extra address line, frequently used 40
AD3 delivery address, always used 40
CIT city name, always used 25
STA state abbreviation, always used 2
ZIP USPS Zip, always used 5
EXT extended Zip (plus 4), used when standardized 4
DPX delivery point extension, used when standardized 2
CDG delivery point check digit, used when standardized 1
TYP USPS address type, optional 1
RET USPS return code, optional 2
RTE USPS carrier route, optional 4
DPV_CMR CMRA paid address proxy optional 1
DPV delivery point validation optional 1
DPV_FTN delivery point footnotes optional 4
EWS early warning system 1
OTH diagnostic codes, optional 20
WRD diagnostic words found, optional 20
UPD diagnostic actions, advice, optional 20
SAL letter salutation, optional 40
GEN name gender-M,F,U,A,C,B, optional 1
PRE name prefix, optional 20
FIR name first, optional 20
MID name middle, optional 20
LAS name last, optional 20
SUF name suffix, optional 20
USE mail record use: yes, no, etc. 3
PKG mail package, for mail package qualifications 15
MCD mail code, prints on mailpiece 8
LCD list or file source code, as needed 2
PRI merge purge priority, as needed 1
ACT customer account number, A/N character, right-set 12
REC_NO record number, A/N, unique, 000001 to 9999999 7
DMA DMA mail preference, as needed 1
DUP_SEQ dupe sequence number, used 7
DCD duplicate code - K, D, used 1
MAT_LEV duplicate match level, used 7
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Other Commonly Used Fields
NAME FIELD DESCRIPTION AND ATTRIBUTES
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NAM2 name two, pre2 + fir2 + mid2 + las2 + suf2 40
BUS_TIT name business title, normally float to COM 40
TIT_COD name title prefix code, normally not exchanged 2
NAM_TIT same as name prefix, pre, use if no name isolation 20
LOT line of travel, is alpha 5
LOT_DIR line of travel directional, is alpha 2
MLS internal mail stop improves address correction 20
HPC highest previous contribution, alpha or numeric 12
MRC most recent contribution, alpha or numeric 12
UP1 upgrade amount 1, is alpha, $20 10
UP2 upgrade amount 2, is alpha, $40 10
UP3 upgrade amount 3, is alpha, $60 10
SCAN scan line with check digit, customer specified 21
STATE state spelled, as needed for drop in 30
HOM_PHO home phone, (000) 000-0000 or 000.000.0000 15
HOM_EXT home extension, x 000 or X-0000 10
HOM_FAX home fax, (000) 000-0000 or 0000000000 15
BUS_PHO business phone, (000) 000-0000 or 000.000.0000 15
BUS_EXT business extension x 000 or X-0000 x000 10
BUS_FAX business fax, (000) 000-0000 or 0000000000 15
EML email address, do not remove punctuations 50
SSAN social security account, 000-00-0000 or 000000000 11
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Address Block Considerations
Think of the USPS Address Block as a vertical stack.
The rarest is
fig. a. a five-line stack
1 NAM
2 COM (in the stack position of address line 1)
3 AD2
4 AD3 (delivery line)
5 CIT STA ZIP EXT
and more commonly
fig. b. a four-line stack
1 NAM
2 AD2
3 AD3 (delivery line)
4 CIT STA ZIP EXT
and, same height as above, with a company name
fig. c. a four-line stack
1 NAM
2 COM
3 AD3 (delivery line)
4 CIT STA ZIP EXT
and, most commonly of all
fig. d. a three-line stack
1 NAM
2 AD3 (delivery line)
3 CIT STA ZIP EXT
The above four configurations represent 99 percent
of the mail we all handle. Fig. a. represents the full
five-line stack.
You are going to be dealing with 1- and 2-line
addresses most all the time. Your `stack' is going to
be a 3- or 4-line stack, as seen above in figs. b-d.
USPS addressing standards declare that the delivery address
is going to be at the bottom orientation of the vertical
address stack.
Therefore we name the address fields in a backward sort of
way for a reason. We want the users to become accustomed
to bottom loading their address lines, making sure the
delivery address is on the bottom, in AD3.
Now, this is what you need in lines AD2 and AD3:
you need all your street addressing and their secondary
delivery units.
You need, as example,
Apt. 123
4040 Goodtime St.
or, better,
4040 Goodtime St. Apt. 123
What you don't need in AD2 and AD3 are any names, name
parts, companies, titles, etc. But, if any of the above
are in COM,
names, name parts, companies, titles, etc.
in won't matter to your address standardizer.
So, make a COM and use it for all this stuff,
second names, name parts, companies, titles, etc.
and your address standardizer will be happy.
Important processing note: before you go to address
standardizer, run some programs to get the above-named
names, name parts, companies, titles, etc.
out of your two primary address lines, AD2 and AD3,
and your address standardizer will be very happy.
You can do it with editing macros, hand typing,
and by shuffling stuff as well. You can sort AD2
and put an `X' in COM for the AD2's that should be
moved, and then run a sweep to move them.
And, yes, Virginia, there will be days when you have
6- and 7-line addresses. But if you follow our discussion
above, we guarantee you can make them all 5-liners with
some practice. And, for those of you who don't want to
try, go ahead and get AD1 from our reserved fields
names and use it. AD(zero) can be used for those of you
who are really loaded.
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