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Address confirmation

published · September 16, 2026

The confirmation map says, part by part, which dataset stood behind the postcode, the street, the house number, the town and the region of an address — and which parts nothing could check.

The confirmation map is the part of an address answer that says, for each of five parts, which dataset stood behind it: the postcode, the street, the house number, the town and the region each get a source name, unconfirmed, or null.

What Spaw answers

confirmation is an object with the keys postal_code, street, house_number, locality and administrative_area. A value names the dataset that confirmed the part: postcode_directory (the national postcode directory lists it), postcode_area (the town is one the directory lists elsewhere in the postcode's area rather than under the code itself, or, where the postcode's region is a single city such as Mexico City, that region's own name), register (a national address register followed the address that far), range (the house number sits inside a range the register publishes for the street), company_register (an open company register lists companies at exactly that building), mail_drop_list (a mailbox operator or a registered agent publishes the address), and pattern (the postcode only matched the country's shape). unconfirmed means a dataset that could have confirmed the part did not; null means nothing could check it at all.

What it is not

unconfirmed is not wrong. A partial register that does not carry a street has not said the street is missing, and the map reports exactly that: not confirmed, by a dataset that might have. The verdicts live elsewhere — exists for the building, locality_matches_postcode and administrative_area_matches_postcode for the town and the region — and the map is the evidence beside them.

Related

markdown version: /glossary/address-confirmation.md

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More glossary

  • Area-code overlay

    An area-code overlay is a new area code added over the same area as an existing one, instead of splitting it, so neighbours can hold different codes and local calls need ten digits.

  • Calling window

    A calling window is the span of local hours a sender contacts people in. Spaw answers in_call_window from the number's time zones: clock arithmetic, not compliance advice.

  • Fictional number

    A fictional number sits in a range kept out of service for films, TV and other fiction: 555-0100 to 555-0199 in North America, and ranges Ofcom, ARCEP, ACMA and ComReg reserve elsewhere.

  • International (exit) prefix

    An international prefix is what is dialled to leave a country before the calling code: 00 in most of the world, 011 in North America. Spaw reads it and suggests a fix in did_you_mean.

  • International network number

    An international network number sits under a calling code the ITU gives a global service rather than a country, such as +870, +881, +882 or +883, so its country is null.

  • Live carrier check (HLR lookup)

    A live carrier check asks the mobile networks, at the moment of the lookup, whether a number is in service, which network serves it and whether it is roaming. On Spaw it is not enabled.

  • Number pooling (thousands-blocks)

    Number pooling splits a North American central office code into ten blocks of a thousand numbers, each assigned to a carrier separately, so one code can hold several carriers' numbers.

  • Number portability

    Number portability lets a subscriber keep a phone number when changing carrier. The number's block stays listed under the carrier it was issued to, so block data names the original holder.