Canada (CAN)

This section defines the supported geocoding datasets, operations, and input and output field information for Canada.

Supported Geocoding Datasets

The following table lists the supported geocoding dataset(s) with the available geocoding levels for Canada.

Note: Custom User Dictionaries are supported.
Geocoding Dataset City Centroid Suburb/Village Centroid Postal Centroid Street Centroid Interpolated Street Address Point-level Address Point of Interest
TomTom MultiNet Canada Data Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No
HERE Points English, French Yes No Yes No No Yes No
Note:

The following geocoding datasets are also supported:

  • Statistics Canada PCCF (Postal Codes) and FSA Boundaries
  • Canada Post Address Range Data

Supported Operations

The following operations are supported for Canada:
  • Geocoding—Takes one or more addresses as input and returns latitude/longitude coordinates and other information.
  • Reverse Geocoding—Takes one or more latitude and longitude coordinates as input and returns the address of the location.
  • Interactive Geocoding— Returns potential match candidates as the adddress is typed in.
  • Global Key Lookup—Returns geocode candidates when given a unique key as input. USA MLD and AUS GNAF data only.

Input Fields

Canadian addresses may contain some or all of the following address elements.

Note: Canada requires either post code and/or province and city information to geocode. This information can be provided in either single line format, as a street address with lastline, or using the areaName<1-4> fields.
Field Name Type Description
PlaceName String Specifies the building name, place name, Point of Interest (POI), company or firm name associated with the input address. Optional.
MainAddressLine String Single Line Input—If no other address field is populated, then the MainAddressLine entry will be treated as a single line input. Single line input can consist of multiple input address fields ; these should be entered in the typical address order for the country. For more details, refer to the section "Single Line Input" below.

Street Address—If the post address components (city, postalCode, etc.) are provided separately or in the lastLine field, then the contents of MainAddressLinemainAddress will be treated as the street address part and can include company name, house number, building names and street names. Optional.

Street Intersection Input—To enter an intersection, specify the two street names separated by a double ampersand (&&).
lastLine String The last line of the address. Optional. For example:

5500 Explorer Drive
Mississauga, ON L4W5C7
areaName1 String Specifies the province. Optional.
areaName2 String Not used.
areaName3 String Specifies the city or town name. Optional.
areaName4 String Specifies the Dissemination Area and Enumeration Area (DA and EA). Optional.
postalCode String Canada uses a six-character postal code. The first three characters are typically separated from the second three with a space. The first three characters are the FSA, the second three are the LDU. Street address geocoding only requires the FSA while postal code geocoding requires the full postal code (FSALDU). Choose whether you wish to have a space between the first three and last three characters of the postal code. Keeping this consistent speeds up the geocoding process. Optional.
country String The three-letter ISO 3166-1 Alpha-3 country code. For Canada, the country code is CAN. Required for forward geocoding.

Address Guidelines for Canada

Follow these suggestions to ensure that your street input data is in the best format possible for optimum matching and geocoding.

  • Postal box addresses—The geocoder can match to addresses containing some form of PO Box for English-speaking provinces and CP for French-speaking provinces. A successful match returns a result code of B2 along with the output format that is standardized according to Canadian address formats. The priority of PO Box matching over streets is set in a Preference in Management Console.

  • Highway addresses—Highway addresses (such as Hwy 401) are geocoded.
  • House numbers and apartment letters—Remove spaces between house number and apartment letter. 123 A Main Street does not geocode correctly because the geocoder assumes that the name of the street is A. Two workaround options are available: either do not include the apartment letter or delete the space between the house number and apartment letter.
  • House numbers and unit information—The house number pinpoints the location of the address. Unit input can be in one of two formats, as shown in the following examples:

    - 99-123 Main St, where 99 is the unit number. In this format, do not specify the unit type. The number 99 could be a suite, apartment, unit, floor or any valid unit type.
    - 123 Main St. Apt 99, where Apt is the unit type and 99 is the unit number. In this format, you must specify a valid unit type (such as Apt or Suite), otherwise the address will not be geocoded correctly.

  • Directional suffixes—Use directional suffixes wherever possible. This is especially true in towns and cities, such as Calgary, which consist mainly of numbered streets. These streets can only be distinguished by their directional suffixes and street types. They also distinguish addresses on streets that change direction. For example: 123 Main St W and 123 Main St E have very different coordinates.
  • Street types—These distinguish different streets of the same name. For example, Main Avenue and Main Street are two entirely different entities. Using types is not essential, but it adds precision to your data. For a list of valid street types see www.canadapost.com.
  • City name—Do not abbreviate city names. If the city is unknown, you may leave it blank, although this may affect the accuracy of the geocode.
  • Province name—You may use the full province name (for example, Ontario), but using the two-character abbreviation (ON) is recommended to reduce the likelihood of input errors. Without a postcode, you must enter both the province and city in order to geocode.

Single Line Input

Instead of entering each address component in separate fields, you can enter the entire address in the mainAddress input field with the address elements ordered as follows:

[address_number][street_info][area_name_3][area_name_1][post_code_1][post_code_2]

Where:
  • [address_number] is optional.
  • [street_info] consists of the street name, street type and any unit type, unit value or pre- or post-directional information (for example, East, West, etc.).
  • [area_name_3] is the city or town.
  • [area_name_1] is the province.
  • [postal_code_1] is the FSA portion of the postal code.
  • [postal_code_2] is the LDU portion of the postal code.

For best results, put a comma between street information and the lastline (for example, city and postal) information.

Custom Options

The following table lists the options that are unique to Canada. These custom options are optional, and unless otherwise noted, they are available for both Geocoding and Reverse Geocoding.

For the standard set of options available to all countries and their definitions, see the chapters covering Global Geocode and Global Reverse Geocode.

Option Name Description
Force LDU match When enabled, does not return any matches that do not have the full FSA LDU postal code. Default = disabled.
Calculate Centerline Projection of Point Computes the closest point on the street from the parcel point. Default = disabled.
Note: This feature requires that a point-level geocoding dataset is installed.
Centerline offset
Centerline matching is used with point-level matching to tie a point-level geocode with its parent street segment. This functionality is useful for routing applications.

The centerline offset specifies the distance to move the point from the street centerline toward the parcel point. Default = 0 meters.

You can select either Feet or Meters for your unit of measurement.

Note: Centerline matching requires that a point-level geocoding dataset is installed.
Note: Supported only in forward geocoding.

Parsed Address Output Fields

The following table lists the parsed address fields returned for a candidate located in Canada.

To return the Parsed Address fields using Management Console, select one of the following options:
  • To return the Parsed Address fields: In the Country Filters dropdown menu, select Global Defaults. Then, on the Return Values tab, select Parsed Address.
  • To return all output fields: In the Country Filters dropdown, select Global Defaults. Then, on the Return Values tab, select Return all available information.
Note: The placeName, addressNumber, unitType and unitValue field values are only returned when a geocoding dataset that supports street address interpolation is installed.
Field Name Description
mainAddressLine The street address which may include company name, house number, building names and street names.
addressLastLine The last line of the address.
placeName The building name, place name, Point of Interest (POI), company or firm name associated with the address.
areaName1 The province.
areaName2 Not used.
areaName3 The town or city.
areaName4 The Dissemination Area and Enumeration Area (DA and EA).
dataType

The returned numeric value represents a data vendor.

0 USPS
1 TIGER
2 TomTom
3 Sanborn Points
4 Tele Atlas
5 Geosys
6 HERE
7 TomTom Points
8 Centrus Points
9 Auxiliary
11 HERE Points
12 Master Location
15 Unknown Vendor
20 MapKing International
21 PT. Duta Astakona Girinda
22 Lepton
23 IPC
24 Map Information Solutions SDN BHD
25 Critchlow
26 MIS
27 Ordnance Survey
28 Spatial Platform
29 Code Point
30 Ordnance Survey AddressBase
31 PMSA Point
32 PMSA
33 MBI
34 PBS
35 NE
postCode1 The FSA portion of the postal code.
postCode2 The LDU portion of the postal code.
country The three-letter ISO 3166-1 Alpha-3 country code. For Canada, the country code is CAN.
addressNumber The address number.
streetName The street or road name.
unitType The unit type such as APT, STE, etc.
unitValue The unit value/number, such as "3B".
customFields See the following section for the custom field definitions.

Custom Output Fields

The following table lists the output fields that are unique for Canada. Unless otherwise noted, these fields can be returned for both forward and reverse geocoding.

  • To return one or more of these custom output fields: In Management Console, use the Country Filter dropdown menu and select Canada. Then, on the Return Values tab, select the desired output field(s).
  • To return all custom output fields: In Management Console, use the Country Filter dropdown menu and select Canada. Then, on the Return Values tab, select the Return all available information checkbox.
Field Name Description
Census CD The Census Division (CD) in which the address is located.

To include this field in the output, select

Return Values > Census checkbox.
Census CMA The Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) in which the address is located.

To include this field in the output, select

Return Values > Census checkbox.
Census CSD The Census Subdivision (CSD) in which the address is located.

To include this field in the output, select

Return Values > Census checkbox.
Census CT The Census Tract (CT) in which the address is located.

To include this field in the output, select

Return Values > Census checkbox.
Census DA The Dissemination Area (DA) in which the address is located.

To include this field in the output, select

Return Values > Census checkbox.
Formatted Street Range The formatted range data for the address. This field is only returned for postal centroid candidates.

To include this field in the output, select

Return Values > Formatted range checkbox.