The AVC Code

The Address Verification Code (AVC) is an 11-byte code that is made up of accuracy indicators for addresses; the codes tell you the quality of the processing results and provide guidelines on how to correct the input data if necessary. Each individual address receives its own code. This code is automatically returned within your dataflow output. An example of an AVC is:

V44-I44-P6-100

An AVC has eight parts:

  • Verification Status
  • Post-Process Verification Match Level
  • Pre-Process Verification Match Level
  • Parsing Status
  • Lexicon Identification Match Level
  • Context Identification Match Level
  • Postcode Status
  • Matchscore

Verification Status

The level to which an address was verified.

  • V—Verified. A complete match was made between the input data and a single record from the available reference data. For simple address validation, this is considered the best code to return.
  • P—Partially verified. A partial match was made between the input data and a single record from the available reference data. This could mean that there is granular data for the address information that was provided, but additional information is required to return a full validation.
  • A—Ambiguous. There are multiple addresses that could match the input.
  • U—Unable to verify. This gets returned when there is not enough information to verify an address or when the input query is unreadable. The output fields will contain the input data.
  • R—Reverted. The record could not be verified to the specified minimum acceptable level. This occurs when advanced options such as minimum reversion levels are set on a process. The output fields will contain the input data.
  • C—Conflict. There is more than one close reference data match with conflicting values.

Post-Process Verification Match Level

The level to which the input data matches the available reference data after processing.

  • 5—Delivery point (building or post box). The record will be passed or will have high confidence if ApartmentNumber, HouseNumber, Street, City, and StateProvince supplied in the input record match to the Loqate reference dataset. Will have moderate confidence if ApartmentNumber is correct but other remaining fields are incorrect, but in this case the Loqate engine should able to identify the ApartmentNumber as ApartmentNumber is at a more granular level. It will have zero confidence if ApartmentNumber and other fields are unable to parsed by the Loqate engine.
  • 4—Premise or building. The record will be passed or will have high confidence if House Number, Street, City, and StateProvince supplied in the input record match the Loqate reference dataset. Will have moderate confidence if HouseNumber is correct but the other fields are not; however, in this case the Loqate engine should able to identify the HouseNumber because HouseNumber is at a more granular level. It will have zero confidence if the HouseNumber and other fields are unable to parsed by the Loqate engine.
  • 3—Thoroughfare, road, or street. The record will be passed or will have high confidence if Street, City, and StateProvince supplied in the input record match the Loqate reference dataset. Will have moderate confidence if City is correct but StateProvince is not; however, in this case the Loqate engine should able to identify the StateProvince as City itself is the part of StateProvince. It will have zero confidence if City or both fields (City and State Province) are unable to parsed by the Loqate engine.
  • 2—Locality (city or town). The record will be passed or will have high confidence if both City and StateProvince supplied in the input record match the Loqate reference dataset. Will have moderate confidence if City is correct but StateProvince is not; however, in this case the Loqate Engine should able to identify the StateProvince as City itself is the part of StateProvince. It will have zero confidence if City or both fields (City and StateProvince) are unable to be parsed by the Loqate engine.
  • 1—Administrative area (state or region). The record will be passed or will have high confidence if the StateProvince supplied in the input record matches the Loqate reference dataset.
  • 0—None. This is equivalent to loosest match option.

Pre-Process Verification Match Level

The level to which the input data matches the available reference data before processing.

  • 5—Delivery point (building or post box)
  • 4—Premise or building.
  • 3—Thoroughfare, road, or street.
  • 2—Locality (city or town).
  • 1—Administrative area (state or region).
  • 0—None.

Parsing Status

The level to which an address was parsed.

  • I—Identified and parsed. The input data has been identified and placed into components. For example, with "123 Kingston Av" Validate Address Loqate would be able to determine that "123" was a Premise Number, "Kingston" was the Thoroughfare Name, and "Av" or "Avenue" would be the Thoroughfare Type.
  • U—Unable to parse. Validate Address Loqate was unable to identify and parse the input data. As with the "Unverified" verification status, the input data was incomplete or vague.

Lexicon Identification Match Level

The level to which the input data has some recognized form through the use of pattern matching (for instance, a numeric value could be a premise number) and lexicon matching (for example, "rd" could be Thoroughfare Type "road"; "London" could be a locality, and so on).

  • 5—Delivery point (building or post box)
  • 4—Premise or building.
  • 3—Thoroughfare, road, or street.
  • 2—Locality (city or town).
  • 1—Administrative area (state or region).
  • 0—None.

Context Identification Match Level

The level to which the input data can be recognized based on the context in which it appears. This is the least accurate form of matching and is based on identifying a word as a particular address element. For example, input could be determined to be a thoroughfare because it was preceded by something that could be a premise and followed by something that could be a locality, the latter items being identified through a match against the reference data or the lexicon.

  • 5—Delivery point (building or post box)
  • 4—Premise or building.
  • 3—Thoroughfare, road, or street.
  • 2—Locality (city or town).
  • 1—Administrative area (state or region).
  • 0—None.

Postcode Status

The level to which a postal code was verified.

  • P8—PostalCodePrimary and PostalCodeSecondary verified.
  • P7—PostalCodePrimary verified, PostalCodeSecondary added or changed.
  • P6—PostalCodePrimary verified.
  • P5—PostalCodePrimary verified with small change.
  • P4—PostalCodePrimary verified with large change.
  • P3—PostalCodePrimary added.
  • P2—PostalCodePrimary identified by lexicon.
  • P1—PostalCodePrimary identified by context.
  • P0—PostalCodePrimary empty.

Match Score

A numeric value between 0 and 100 representing the similarity between the identified input data and the output data for the record. A result of 100 means that no changes other than additions,alias, casing, or diacritic changes have been made to the input data. A result of 0 means there is no similarity between the input data item and the output data provided.