Glossary

• Address ManagementThe process of looking after and updating your address databases over time. This ranges from checking accuracy when you first collect an address to many years later when the address may have changed. See our Address Management Guide for more information.
• Address MatchingA type of address search which uses any combination of parts of the address to find the full and correct result.
• Alias DataData maintained by Royal Mail which contains additional address information not required for postal delivery, such as local place names (i.e. Kensington), historical county names and company trading names.
• APIThis stands for Application Programmer's Interface which is a set of tools to make it easy for programmers to add address lookup seamlessly to their own applications. Our API tools include many search functions, code examples and reference material.
• BarcodeA unique code used for automated mail sorting that is derived from a Delivery Point Suffix and a Postcode.
• Basic SearchingA type of address search using one or more specific elements of the address i.e. the Post Town or Street name.
• Batch Processing of Address DataOften also called Address Cleaning, this is the automated process of updating or correcting addresses.
• BS7666A British standard that (among other things) defines a way to represent addresses and is used by the NLPG database.
• Current CountyA data set developed by Allies® which offers a County name for every Postcode in the UK, (available in most of our software). A complete set of county data and our "Current County" is not available from PAF®.
• Data ExtractA subset of data from the full data file. For example from a selected Postcode Area, User Category or all addresses within a radius from a centre point. See also Raw Data.
• Data UpdateAn up to date version of the data contained within the product you buy from Allies®.
• Delivery PointA single letterbox, for example a house or a business.
• Delivery Point SuffixA unique code for each Delivery Point in a Postcode.
• Dependent LocalityA small town or village name sometimes included in an address when the Delivery Point is outside the boundary of the main Post Town that serves it.
• Dependent StreetSometimes included in an address when the Delivery Point is not on the main street, for example a shopping arcade off a high street.
• Double-Dependent LocalityA business park, industrial estate or hamlet which is smaller than a Dependent Locality, sometimes included in an address.
• Find My NearestA search that displays the geographic location of properties (for example, a company's branches) closest to an address, using Grid Reference data behind the scenes.
• GeoDataA data file consisting of 1m Grid References, NHS Health Authority codes and names, OSGB36 and ETRS89 Latitude & Longitude data and Local Authority ward codes and names, for each Postcode. This data is maintained by PostCoder.com and comprises of NSPD data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS).
• Grid ReferencesCoordinates that reference a geographic location. In PAF® they define the location of the averaged centre point of a Postcode, derived from the Ordnance Survey National Grid.
• IncodeThis is used after the Outcode to sort the mail into a postal delivery "walk".
• IP AddressEach machine connected to the Internet has a numeric address known as an Internet Protocol address (IP address). The IP address takes the form of four numbers separated by dots, for example: 123.45.67.89.
• Large UserA user category that denotes a single delivery point that has been assigned its own Postcode due to the volume of mail it receives.
• Local Authority Ward CodePart of GeoData these codes are a six alpha-numeric (Local Authority) or a four alpha-numeric (Unitary Authority) code that denotes the county, Authority and electoral ward of the Postcode. In Northern Ireland, the 6 characters are made up of '95' plus a letter, a space and the electoral Ward.
• Multiple ResidenceAn additional data file to PAF® containing approximately 400,000 more addresses at Delivery Point. This data contains information about the addresses behind a single Delivery Point on PAF®, for example, a university Halls of Residence with 5000 residences behind 1 main letterbox.
• NHS Health Authority CodeA three character code included in GeoData which identifies the Health Authority or board responsible for funding patient care within each Postcode.
• NHS Primary Care Trust CodesA three character code for groups of GP practices taken from the Office of National Statistics and included with GeoData.
• NLPGThe National Land and Property Gazetteer is a database of addresses across England and Wales which is created from data supplied by Local Councils, and based around the BS7666 standard. The Postcodes are the same as in PAF® but the addresses may differ.
• NSPDThe National Statistics Postcode Directory supplied and maintained by the Office of National Statistics containing geographic information such as Government Offices, National Parks, Census and Electoral areas.
• OutcodeThis is used before the Incode to direct the mail to a sorting office.
• PAF®This is Royal Mail's "Postcode Address File®" which contains all postal addresses in the UK, Channel Isles and Isle of Man.
• POANPrimary Addressable Object Name is an element of NLPG which is the Premise number and/or the Premise name.
• Postally CorrectAn accurate and up-to-date address in the correct format required by Royal Mail for postal purposes.
• PostcodeThis is the primary piece of information used in the sorting and delivery of postal items. A Postcode represents a collection of, or a single Delivery Point, or a PO Box. It has two parts: the Outcode and the Incode. These are further divided into an Area, District, Sector and Unit (see the individual definitions of these terms). For the Postcode NR14 7PZ:
• Postcode AreaThis is indicated by the first letter(s) in the Postcode, for example NR. There are 124 Postcode Areas in the UK.
• Postcode DistrictThis is a sub region of a Postcode Area represented by the numbers in the Outcode. (Refer to the definition of Postcode). An example of a District is NR14.
• Postcode SectorRepresented by the first digit of the Incode (Refer to the definition of a Postcode). An example of a Sector is NR14 7.
• Postcode UpdateA file that is automatically included in most PostCoder® products which shows when a Delivery Point's Postcode has changed.
• PostCoder®A range of addressing software designed, developed and tested in house by Allies®.
• Premise Level PAF®Full addresses containing the individual Delivery Point details, for example the organisation name, department, PO Box number, building name, sub-building name and/or building number, as well as the Thoroughfare level PAF® data.
• Rapid AddressingA type of address search using the input of just the Premise and Postcode.
• Raw DataThis could be PAF® and/or GeoData or another dataset in a fixed width or csv format. In its original form, the data is supplied as a large, multi-segmented database which we convert into a file that can be easily used with most databases and spreadsheets.
• Sage 50 AccountsAn Accounts package offered by Sage
• SAONSecondary Addressable Object Name is an element of NLPG which describes a secondary addressable object within PAON, for example, "first floor".
• Thoroughfare Level PAF®An address at street level only, including the Dependent Street, Main Street, Double-Dependent Locality, Dependent Locality, Post Town and Postcode, but not the Delivery Point details.
• UDPRNUnique Delivery Point Reference Number is a field in PAF® which was created to uniquely identify a Premise in the UK. This differs to the Delivery Point Suffix which just uniquely identifies a Premise within a Postcode. UDPRN is a number up to 8 digits which never gets re-used if a Premise is deleted, as it could be re-activated for the original Premise at anytime in the future.
• UPRNUnique Property Reference Number from the National Land and Property Gazetteer.
• User CategoryThis indicates whether a Premise is a residential, non-residential or large user address.
• USRNUnique Street Reference Number is a field in NLPG that identifies the street. The number is derived from the National Street Gazetteer, which is a countrywide register of streets.