Table - Address - Standardize

The Standardize command is used to convert addresses from non-standard forms into the standard form expected by the Manifold geocoder. It has several functions:

§ Extract Address, City, State and Zip fields - Given one or more address fields that contain a mix of street address, city, state and Zip code information, the command will attempt to parse the data and (usually) extract information into four newly-created standard Address, City, State and Zip fields. The command can normally extract the main street address from a single address field. For example, if we have a single database field called "Street Address" that contains a string such as "525 Main Street Suite 304, Carson City, Nevada" Manifold can parse the string to obtain "525 Main St" for the Address field.

§ Find missing Zip codes - If a Zip code is not present the command can usually find the missing Zip code or present possible matches for approval.

§ Normalize address nomenclature - If the Normalize addresses box is checked the command will convert address nomenclature into standardized abbreviations, such as "Rd" for "Road," and will convert state names into official postal abbreviations. The command will also correct elementary errors in case, such as converting "525 UnivErsity AVenue" to "525 University Ave"

§ Check for unknown locations - The command will automatically check for impossible combinations of streets, towns and zip codes, including unknown town names, street names and other clearly inaccurate address data.

The Standardize command will process a table and then raise the Unmatched Records dialog to allow editing and selection of proposed matches the system thinks are close to what is intended.

Standardize Addresses Dialog Controls

generate … using	Specify the columns to be used for standardized address fields and from which column each standardized address should be extracted. Either new columns may be automatically created or existing columns may be used.
Address	Column to be used for the standard field that contains the building number and street name. Choosing [New Column] will add a new column to the table called Address.
City	Column to be used for the standard field that contains the city name. Choosing [New Column] will add a new column to the table called City.
State	Column to be used for the standard field that contains the state name. Choosing [New Column] will add a new column to the table called State.
Zip	Column to be used for the standard field that contains the five-digit postal ZIP code. Choosing [New Column] will add a new column to the table called Zip.
Status	If desired, add a column that reports the status of a particular record after processing. [None] does not report status, [New Column] will add a new column to the table called Status.
Fail on	Criterion to be used to declare a particular record to be unmatched.
Normalize addresses	Convert address nomenclature into standardized abbreviations, such as "Rd" for "Road," state names into official postal abbreviations. etc.
Skip completed records	Do not process records that already have values in the designated Address, City, State and Zip fields.

Fail on Options

any error	Does not process record unless it is a perfect match in all fields. Equivalent to setting an "unknown building" error.
unknown street name, possible misspelling	Matches to Zip and City and does not process record unless the street name is an exact match.
unknown street name, no similar names	Matches to Zip and City, and attempts to match to similar street names if an exact match to the street name cannot be found. Uses "Soundex" and similar algorithms to attempt to find the right street in case of a street name misspelling. This is the default setting.
unknown zip	Do not process record if the zip code cannot be found.
critical error	Stop processing only on problems with an incomplete geocoding database or on hardware failure.

Status Values

When reporting the status of a record's processing in a Status field the following values are used, listed in order of increasing severity:

ok	No errors in processing record.
unknown building	The geocoder was able to locate the zip code and the street name, but the street does not appear to contain an address of the given number.
unknown street name, possible misspelling	The geocoder was able to locate the zip code but not the street name; however, the zip code does contain some streets with names similar to the street name.
unknown street name, no similar names	The geocoder was able to locate the zip code but not the street name. The zip code does contain any streets with names similar to the street name.
unknown zip code	The geocoder could not locate the zip code.
critical error	The geocoder could not function due to an incomplete geocoding database, a problem accessing the database or a hardware failure.

Selections

Both the Standardize and the Geocode commands are auto-scoped: if a selection is present in the table they will operate only on the selected records.