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ortusdux | on: USPS now offers official ZIP Code boundary polygons
I'm sure their system has its faults, but I find shipping to the UK via postal code quite easy.

"A full postcode identifies a group of addresses (typically around ten) or a major delivery point."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postcodes_in_the_United_Kingdo...

reticulates | parent | next
Fun fact, a postcode can represent up to 100 addresses, apartment buildings with more than 100 units have multiple postcodes. Sometimes third-party systems will only recognize a subset of those postcodes (e.g: a system might assume a building only has 1 postcode) which can lead to some residents being in the geographic region for a service while others are not despite being in the same building.

Also postcode data is licensed by the Royal Mail, not free.

cjs_ac | parent | next
Interestingly, there are no polygons for UK postcodes, because UK postcodes don’t represent a geographical area; instead, they represent one or more discrete points.
xp84 | root | parent | next
ZIPs don't represent areas either. They represent routes, so a collection of paths on a road map is bundled together and named with a ZIP. If you built a new house in between towns, whichever post office decides to serve it would extend one of their lines to go past your house, and then you are assigned that ZIP code. Since it's all based on their convenience, they don't pay any mind to things like city limits or even in some cases state lines.
EwanToo | root | parent | next
I know what you're saying, but Ordnance Survey sells the polygons anyway.

https://docs.os.uk/osngd/data-structure/administrative-and-s...

cjs_ac | root | parent
That’s naughty of them. I wonder how SW1A 1AA (Buckingham Palace) and SW1A 0AA (the House of Commons) are represented.
russdill | root | parent
Given how postcodes are supposed to work, this is what I would expect. Curious if many of the polygons in the data set contain more than one polygon and or if there is any overlap
kube-system | root | parent
> how postcodes are supposed to work

Not sure under what basis you think they are "supposed" to be a certain way but postal codes originated as a signifiers of areas, even in the UK.

US postal codes absolutely have overlap in area, because they do not divide land, they direct delivery routing.

loading story #50433389
cornedor | parent | next
As someone from the Netherlands I’ve been very surprised at how far “ahead” we seem to be here. Just a postcode can point you to a street, even the side of the street (right or left hand), a house number than gives you the exact building. That is how people are used to enter their address here.

When I had to work with addresses in other countries, I found out that is not that normal.

ortusdux | root | parent
In the US, outside of grid systems, it's common for house addresses to be distances, with even numbers to be on the right hand side. For example, 567 Oak Street would be 0.56 miles down Oak, on the left. Very helpful for first responders and delivery people. Not that helpful if you do not know where Oak street is.
reaperducer | parent
"A full postcode identifies a group of addresses (typically around ten) or a major delivery point."

The United States can be more granular, as a "full postcode" equivalent in the United States is ZIP+4, which can resolve down to an individual building, mailbox, or person, depending on the characteristics of the location.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZIP_Code#ZIP+4

twodave | root | parent
And even for those where it isn’t one exact person/box there is a 2 digit delivery point code that often is included on the end.