Postal address analysis

When we examine postal addresses as they might appear in an administrative file, we discover a complex syntax, a lack of standards, various ambiguities and many errors. Therefore, postal addresses represent a real challenge to any computer system using them. PAAS (Postal Address Analysis System) is currently under development at Statistics Canada and aims to replace an aging routine used throughout the Bureau to decode postal addresses. PAAS will provide a means by which computer applications will obtain the address components, the standardized version of these components and the corresponding Address Search Key (ASK).