Output Data Options

The following table lists the options that control the type of information returned by Validate Address. Some of these options can be overridden for Canadian addresses. For more information, see Canadian Address Options.

Table 1. Output Data Options
Option	Description
Include a standard address	Returns 1 to 4 lines of address data plus city, state, postal code, firm name, and urbanization name information. Each address line represents an actual line of the address as it would appear on an envelope. For more information, see Standard Address Output. If Validate Address could validate the address, the address lines contain the standardized address. When addresses are standardized, punctuation is removed, directionals are abbreviated, street suffixes are abbreviated, and address elements are corrected. If Validate Address could not validate the address, the address lines contain the address as it appeared in the input ("pass through" data). Non-validated addresses are always included as pass through data in the address line fields even if you uncheck this option.
Include matched address elements	Each part of the address, such as house number, street name, street suffix, directionals, and so on is returned in a separate field. For more information, see Parsed Address Elements Output . Note that if you select this option and also select Return normalized data when no match is found, the address elements will contain the input address for addresses that could not be validated.
Include postal information	Output addresses contain various additional data for each validated address. For more information, see Postal Data Output.
Include standardized input address elements	This option returns the input address in parsed form regardless of whether or not Validate Address is able to validate the address. Each part of the input address, such as house number, street name, street suffix, directionals, and so on is returned in a separate field. Selecting this option differs from selecting the combination of Include matched address elements/Return normalized data when no match is found in that Return standardized input address elements returns all input address in parsed form, not just input that could not be validated. For more information, see Parsed Input.
Return normalized data when no match is found	Specifies whether to return a formatted address when an address cannot be validated. The address is formatted using the preferred address format for the address's country. If this option is not selected, the output address fields are blank when the address cannot be validated. Note: This option applies only to U.S. and Canadian addresses. Formatted data will not be returned for any other address. Formatted addresses are returned using the format specified by the Include a standard address, Include address line elements, and Include postal information check boxes. Note that if you select Include address line elements, the parsed address elements will contain the parsed, validated address for addresses that could be validated. If the address could not be validated the parsed address elements will contain the input address in parsed form. If you always want the output to contain the input address in parsed form, regardless of whether or not Validate Address could validate the address, select Include standardized input address elements. If you check this option, you must select Include a standard address and/or Include address line elements.
Return street name alias	For U.S. addresses only, specifies how to handle street name aliases used in the input. A street alias is an alternate name for a street and applies only to a specific range of addresses on the street. If you enable this option, street name aliases used in the input will appear in the output. If you do not enable this option, street name aliases in the input will be converted to the base street name in the output, with the following exceptions: If a preferred alias is used in input the preferred alias will always be used in output. Changed aliases used in input are always converted to the base street name in output. This is one of three options that control how Validate Address handles street name aliases. The other two are Preferred street name alias processing and Abbreviated street name alias processing. Note: If Abbreviated street name alias processing is enabled, the abbreviated alias will always appear in the output even if you have Return street name alias disabled.
Return address data blocks	Specifies whether to return a formatted version of the address as it would be printed on a physical mailpiece. Each line of the address is returned in a separate address block field. There can be up to nine address block output fields: AddressBlock1 through AddressBlock9. For example, this input address: AddressLine1: 4200 Parliament Place AddressLine2: Suite 600 City: Lanham StateProvince: MD PostalCode: 20706 Results in this address block output: AddressBlock1: 4200 PARLIAMENT PL STE 600 AddressBlock2: LANHAM MD 20706-1882 AddressBlock3: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Validate Address formats the address into address blocks using postal authority standards. The country name is returned using the Universal Postal Union country name. Note that the option Country format does not affect the country name in the address block, it only affects the name returned in the Country output field. For addresses outside the U.S. and Canada, if Validate Address is unable to validate the address, no address blocks are returned. For addresses in the U.S. and Canada, address blocks are returned even if validation fails.