Creating a Landmark Auxiliary File

The Landmark Auxiliary File provides you a way to specify customized address information in your input records. The recommended primary use of this file is to match to your company’s non-address locations such as well heads, transmission towers or any other descriptive location. The latitude/latitude that is part of the input needed to build this file allows companies to automatically keep track of any jurisdictional changes that affect these unique locations. Matching to this file requires that the input record information match exactly to the Landmark file contents. This also applies to street records if you choose to enter them in the Landmark file.
Note: A file template for Windows and Linux systems is available to more easily create a Landmark Auxiliary file. The template file is available in the data installation folder delivered with Spectrum Enterprise Tax:
  • On Windows: InstallationDirectory\server\modules\gtx\data\LANDMARK.GAX
  • On Linux: InstallationDirectory/server/modules/gtx/data/landmark.gax

Where InstallationDirectory refers to the folder where you installed the SpectrumTM Technology Platform server.

Landmark Auxiliary file requirements

The Landmark Auxiliary file requirements include:

  • The file must be a fixed-width text file: On Windows, the text file must be ASCII
  • The file must have a .gax extension on Windows
  • The file must have less than 500,000 records
  • The file must follow the column field order and lengths specified in Landmark File Layout.

Record types

You can include two types of records in your Landmark Auxiliary file: Landmark and Street Records.

A Landmark record represent a single site. To be a valid landmark record, the record must have the following fields:

  • ZIP Code
  • Name of the landmark - placed in the street name field
  • Beginning latitude of the landmark
  • Beginning longitutde of the landmark

In addition, a Landmark record may NOT have the following fields:

  • Street type abbreviation
  • Pre-directional abbreviation
  • Post-directional abbreviation
  • Low house number
  • High house number

A Street record contains a range of one or more addresses on a street. To be a valid street record the record must have the following fields:

  • ZIP Code
  • Street name
  • Street type abbreviation, if part of the address
  • Pre-directional abbreviation, if part of the address
  • Post-directional abbreviation, if part of the address
  • Low house number within the street segment
  • High house number within the street segment
  • Beginning longitude of the street segment
  • Beginning latitude of the street segment

In addition, a Street record may NOT have the following fields:

  • Secondary address information, such as unit numbers
  • Mailstops
  • Private mail boxes (PMBs)

During processing ignores any record that does not comply with the preceding requirements.

Landmark Auxiliary file organization

You must comply with the following organizational rules when creating your Landmark Auxiliary file.

  • Use semicolons in the first column to indicate a row is a comment, not a data record; Spectrum Enterprise Tax ignores rows that begin with a semicolon.
  • Order the records within the file by descending ZIP Code then descending street name for optimal performance.
  • All records must represent one or both sides of a street.
  • All records must represent segments that are straight lines. Records cannot represent a non-straight segment.
  • If house numbers are present in the record, the house number range must be valid according to USPS rules documented in Publication 28.
  • The numeric fields, such as ZIP Codes, must contain all numbers.
  • Latitude and longitude values must be in millionths of decimal degrees.
  • Records cannot contain PO Box addresses.

Default values

Spectrum Enterprise Tax uses the following defaults if you do not include the values in the Landmark Auxiliary file:

  • House number parity = B (both odds and evens)
  • Segment direction = F (forward) or A (ascending), these are interchangeable.
  • Side of street = U (unknown)

Landmark Auxiliary file layout

Field

Description

Required

For Street Segment Match

Required

For Landmark Match

Requires Exact Match

Length

Position

ZIP Code 5-digit ZIP Code X X X 5 1-5
Street name Name of the street or landmark X X X 30 6-35
Street type abbreviation Street type. Also called street suffix. See the USPS Publication 28 for a complete list of supported street types. X 4 36-39
Predirectional USPS street name predirectional abbreviation. Supported values are N, E, S, W, NE, NW, SE, and SW. X 2 40-41
Postdirectional USPS street name postdirectional abbreviations. Supported values are N, E, S, W, NE, NW, SE, and SW.
Reserved Reserved 4 44-47
Low house number Low house number of the address range. X 11 48-58
High house number High house number of the address range. X 11 59-69
House number parity1 Parity of the house number in the range:
  • E - Even
  • O - Odd
  • B - Both
1 70
Segment direction Direction the house numbers progress along the segment from the viewpoint of the segment's starting coordinate:
  • F - Forward (default) or A - Ascending
  • R - Reverse or D - Descending
1 71
Reserved Reserved 1 72
FIPS state US government FIPS state code. 2 73-74
FIPS county US government FIPS county code. 3 75-77
Census tract US Census tract number. 6 78-83
Census block group US Census block group number. 1 84
Census block ID US Census block ID number. 3 85-87
Reserved Reserved 5 88-92
State abbreviation USPS state abbreviation 2 93-95
County name Name of the county. 25 95-119
MCD code Minor Civil Division code. 5 120-124
MCD name Minor Civil Division name. 40 125-164
CBSA code Core Based Statistical Area code. 5 165-169
CBSA name Core Based Statistical Area name. 49 170-218
Reserved Reserved 5 219-223
City Name City name. Overrides the city/state preferred city name upon a return. 40 224-263
Reserved Reserved 237 264-500
User-defined data User-defined data. 300 501-800
Record ID Number User-defined unique record identifier. 10 801-810
Side of street Side of the street for the address:
  • L - Left side
  • R - Right side
  • B - Both sides
  • U - Unknown side (default)

This is from the viewpoint of the segment's starting coordinate.

1 811
Beginning longitude Beginning longitude of the street segment in millionths of degrees. X X 11 812-822
Beginning latitude Beginning latitude of the street segment in millionths of degrees. X X 10 823-832
Ending longitude Ending longitude of the street segment in millionths of degrees. 11 833-843
Ending latitude Ending latitude of the street segment in millionths of degrees. 10 844-853

Matching to the Landmark Auxiliary file

Spectrum Enterprise Tax performs the following steps when matching an input address to a Landmark Auxiliary file.

  1. Spectrum Enterprise Tax determines if there is a Landmark Auxiliary file present. If more than one Landmark Auxiliary file is present, Spectrum Enterprise Tax attempts to match against the first file. Spectrum Enterprise Tax ignores any additional Landmark Auxiliary files for matching, regardless if Spectrum Enterprise Tax found a match to the first auxiliary file.

    If a record within the Landmark Auxiliary files is invalid, Spectrum Enterprise Tax returns a message indicating the auxiliary file has an invalid record. Spectrum Enterprise Tax continues to process input addresses against the Landmark Auxiliary file, but will not match to the invalid auxiliary file record.

  2. If the Landmark Auxiliary file is present, Spectrum Enterprise Tax first attempts to match to it. If more than one type of auxiliary file is present, the search order is:
    • Landmark Auxiliary file
    • User Auxiliary file
    • State-supplied file
    • GeoTAX Auxiliary file
    Note: Spectrum Enterprise Tax only matches your input address to your Landmark Auxiliary file if there is an exact match. Therefore, your input address list should be as clean as possible; free of misspellings and incomplete addresses.
  3. If Spectrum Enterprise Tax finds an exact record match to the Landmark Auxiliary file, it standardizes the match to USPS regulations and returns the output of the auxiliary file match.
    Note: You cannot update the Landmark Auxiliary file while Spectrum Enterprise Tax is running. If you want to update the auxiliary file, you need to stop Spectrum Enterprise Tax before attempting to replace or edit the file.

Record type matching rules

When attempting a match against the Landmark Auxiliary file, GeoTAX abides by the following rules:

Landmark record match

  • The input data must contain both a ZIP Code and address line, and they must exactly match the values on the auxiliary record.
  • The input address cannot have any other data, such as a house number, unit number, or Private Mail Box (PMB).
Note: Spectrum Enterprise Tax only matches the ZIP Code against the auxiliary file. GeoTAX does not verify that the ZIP Code of the input address record is correct for the city and state. You should validate this information in your input address before processing against the auxiliary file.

Street record match

  • The input house number must fall within or be equal to the low and high house number values of the auxiliary record.
  • The input house number must agree with the parity of the auxiliary record.
  • The input ZIP Code must exactly match the ZIP Code of the auxiliary record.
1 For even and odd house number parity records, this specifies on which side of the street the house lays. For records containing both even and odd house numbers, the odd house numbers are on the specified side of the street, and the even house numbers are on the other side. This is a factor when using street offset.