Fix address - examples

This document describes a number of real-world scenarios where the Address Validation API provides response signals that warrant a fix behavior from your system. See Workflow overview in Build your validation logic for context.

Note: the examples here are illustrative, but not exhaustive.

Common examples: fix

This section describes common examples where the Address Validation API provides response signals indicating lower quality address information.

Missing city and postal code

This example illustrates an entry having only the street address, with no city or postal code.

Address entered	Region
21 45 40th street	USA

Verdict for missing city and postal code

The example below emphasizes the important signals from the response.

{
  "inputGranularity": "PREMISE",
  "validationGranularity": "OTHER",
  "geocodeGranularity": "OTHER",
  "hasUnconfirmedComponents": true
}

These signals indicate a non-deliverable address, so you can query the addressComponents to learn more:

{
  "componentName": {
    "text": "21",
    "languageCode": "en"
  },
  "componentType": "street_number",
  "confirmationLevel": "UNCONFIRMED_BUT_PLAUSIBLE"
},
{
  "componentName": {
    "text": "45 40th street",
    "languageCode": "en"
  },
  "componentType": "route",
  "confirmationLevel": "UNCONFIRMED_BUT_PLAUSIBLE"
},
{
  "componentName": {
    "text": "United States",
    "languageCode": "en"
  },
  "componentType": "country",
  "confirmationLevel": "CONFIRMED"
}

The Address Validation API returns only the country (United States) as CONFIRMED. It returns all other address components as UNCONFIRMED_BUT_PLAUSIBLE, with some important omissions to the data, such as locality and postal code.

Action: For this address, the recommended action is to prompt the user for the missing information.

Missing street number

This example shows a missing street number.

Address entered	Region
Buckingham Palace Road, SW1W 9TQ London	UK

Verdict for missing street number

{
    "inputGranularity": "PREMISE_PROXIMITY",
    "validationGranularity": "ROUTE",
    "geocodeGranularity": "ROUTE"
}

The validationGranularity is ROUTE, which indicates a match to the street, but not enough information to get to the premise. Additionally, the addressComplete property is missing from the verdict, and therefore it is false. A further query of the address object reveals a missing component type:

"missingComponentTypes": [
        "street_number"
      ]

Action: In this case, the recommended action is to prompt the user for the missing information.

Edge-case examples: fix

In some situations, whether you fix, confirm, or accept an address depends on your particular business scenario. The examples below illustrate scenarios that might not strictly fall into a fix category.

Unconfirmed street number

In this scenario, the Address Validation API cannot confirm the supplied street number, yet it indicates that the address is complete.

Address entered	Region
84 Buckingham Palace Road, SW1W 9TQ, London	UK

Verdict for unconfirmed street number

The example below emphasizes the important signals.

{
  "inputGranularity": "PREMISE",
  "validationGranularity": "PREMISE_PROXIMITY",
  "geocodeGranularity": "PREMISE_PROXIMITY",
  "addressComplete" : true,
  "hasUnconfirmedComponents": true
}

It's worth investigating the combination of a validation granularity only to premise-level approximation along with unconfirmed components. A query of the addressComponents property shows the following unconfirmed componentType:

{
  "componentName": {
    "text": "84",
    "languageCode": "en"
  },
  "componentType": "street_number",
  "confirmationLevel": "UNCONFIRMED_BUT_PLAUSIBLE"
}

Here, the confirmation_level of the street_number is set to UNCONFIRMED_BUT_PLAUSIBLE. Unconfirmed means that the service cannot match the street number of 84 in its dataset, and plausible means that the component data could still be valid.

Action: You can either accept the input as entered, or confirm with the customer to determine if the street number entered was intended or an error. Your response depends on the level of risk associated with your delivery. See Implementation guidance in Build your validation logic.

Missing subpremise

This scenario describes an address that is only missing a subpremise, such as an apartment or department number. Otherwise, the Address Validation API can fully validate the address. As is the case when any address component is missing, the the addressComplete is false and therefore not present on manual inspection of the verdict.

Note: In some countries, the Address Validation API cannot detect a missing subpremise; while in the US, a missing SUB_PREMISE indicates a non-deliverable address.

To illustrate, suppose a customer enters a valid address for the San Francisco city assessor's office, but misses the room number from the input.

Address entered	Region
1 Doctor Carlton B Goodlett Place, San Francisco, CA 94102	USA

Verdict for missing subpremise

In this example, the verdict does not display the addressComplete property, so therefore it is false. Because of this, you know that at least one address element is unexpected, unresolved, or missing.

{
  "inputGranularity": "PREMISE",
  "validationGranularity": "PREMISE",
  "geocodeGranularity": "PREMISE",
  "hasInferredComponents": true

}

An address query reveals the following:

"missingComponentTypes": [
        "subpremise"
      ]

Upon further inquiry, the USPS data provides a dpvConfirmation code of D, which also indicates a missing subpremise.

Action: For this address, the recommended action is to prompt the user for the missing information.