rules table — The rules table contains a set of rules that maps address input sequence tokens to standardized output sequence. A rule is defined as a set of input tokens followed by -1 (terminator) followed by set of output tokens followed by -1 followed by number denoting kind of rule followed by ranking of rule.
A rules table must have at least the following columns, though you are allowed to add more for your own uses.
Primary key of table
text field denoting the rule. Details at PAGC Address Standardizer Rule records.
A rule consists of a set of non-negative integers representing input tokens, terminated by a -1, followed by an equal number of non-negative integers representing postal attributes, terminated by a -1, followed by an integer representing a rule type, followed by an integer representing the rank of the rule. The rules are ranked from 0 (lowest) to 17 (highest).
So for example the rule 2 0 2 22 3 -1 5 5 6 7 3 -1 2 6 maps to sequence of output tokens TYPE NUMBER TYPE DIRECT QUALIF to the output sequence STREET STREET SUFTYP SUFDIR QUALIF. The rule is an ARC_C rule of rank 6.
Numbers for corresponding output tokens are listed in stdaddr.
Each rule starts with a set of input tokens followed by a terminator -1. Valid input tokens excerpted from PAGC Input Tokens are as follows:
Form-Based Input Tokens
(13). The ampersand (&) is frequently used to abbreviate the word "and".
(9). A punctuation character.
(21). A sequence of two letters. Often used as identifiers.
(25). Fractions are sometimes used in civic numbers or unit numbers.
(23). An alphanumeric string that contains both letters and digits. Used for identifiers.
(0). A string of digits.
(15). Representations such as First or 1st. Often used in street names.
(18). A single letter.
(1). A word is a string of letters of arbitrary length. A single letter can be both a SINGLE and a WORD.
Function-based Input Tokens
(14). Words used to denote post office boxes. For example Box or PO Box.
(19). Words used to denote buildings or building complexes, usually as a prefix. For example: Tower in Tower 7A.
(24). Words and abbreviations used to denote buildings or building complexes, usually as a suffix. For example: Shopping Centre.
(22). Words used to denote directions, for example North.
(20). Words used to denote milepost addresses.
(6). Words and abbreviations used to denote highways and roads. For example: the Interstate in Interstate 5
(8). Words and abbreviations used to denote rural routes. RR.
(2). Words and abbreviation used to denote street typess. For example: ST or AVE.
(16). Words and abbreviation used to denote internal subaddresses. For example, APT or UNIT.
Postal Type Input Tokens
(28). A 5 digit number. Identifies a Zip Code
(29). A 4 digit number. Identifies ZIP4.
(27). A 3 character sequence of letter number letter. Identifies an FSA, the first 3 characters of a Canadian postal code.
(26). A 3 character sequence of number letter number. Identifies an LDU, the last 3 characters of a Canadian postal code.
Stopwords
STOPWORDS combine with WORDS. In rules a string of multiple WORDs and STOPWORDs will be represented by a single WORD token.
(7). A word with low lexical significance, that can be omitted in parsing. For example: THE.
After the first -1 (terminator), follows the output tokens and their order, followed by a terminator -1. Numbers for corresponding output tokens are listed in stdaddr. What are allowed is dependent on kind of rule. Output tokens valid for each rule type are listed in the section called “Rule Types and Rank”.
The final part of the rule is the rule type which is denoted by one of the following, followed by a rule rank. The rules are ranked from 0 (lowest) to 17 (highest).
MACRO_C
(token number = "0"). The class of rules for parsing MACRO clauses such as PLACE STATE ZIP
MACRO_C output tokens (excerpted from http://www.pagcgeo.org/docs/html/pagc-12.html#--r-typ--.
(token number "10"). Example "Albany"
(token number "11"). Example "NY"
(token number "12"). This attribute is not used in most reference files. Example "USA"
(token number "13"). (SADS elements "ZIP CODE" , "PLUS 4" ). This attribute is used for both the US Zip and the Canadian Postal Codes.
MICRO_C
(token number = "1"). The class of rules for parsing full MICRO clauses (such as House, street, sufdir, predir, pretyp, suftype, qualif) (ie ARC_C plus CIVIC_C). These rules are not used in the build phase.
MICRO_C output tokens (excerpted from http://www.pagcgeo.org/docs/html/pagc-12.html#--r-typ--.
is a text (token number 1): This is the street number on a street. Example 75 in 75 State Street.
is text (token number 2): STREET NAME PRE-DIRECTIONAL such as North, South, East, West etc.
is text (token number 3): STREET NAME PRE-MODIFIER Example OLD in 3715 OLD HIGHWAY 99.
is text (token number 4): STREET PREFIX TYPE
is text (token number 5): STREET NAME
is text (token number 6): STREET POST TYPE e.g. St, Ave, Cir. A street type following the root street name. Example STREET in 75 State Street.
is text (token number 7): STREET POST-DIRECTIONAL A directional modifier that follows the street name.. Example WEST in 3715 TENTH AVENUE WEST.
ARC_C
(token number = "2"). The class of rules for parsing MICRO clauses, excluding the HOUSE attribute. As such uses same set of output tokens as MICRO_C minus the HOUSE token.
CIVIC_C
(token number = "3"). The class of rules for parsing the HOUSE attribute.
EXTRA_C
(token number = "4"). The class of rules for parsing EXTRA attributes - attributes excluded from geocoding. These rules are not used in the build phase.
EXTRA_C output tokens (excerpted from http://www.pagcgeo.org/docs/html/pagc-12.html#--r-typ--.
(token number 0): Unparsed building identifiers and types.
(token number 14): The BOX in BOX 3B
(token number 15): The 3B in BOX 3B
(token number 8): The RR in RR 7
(token number 16): The APT in APT 3B
(token number 17): The 3B in APT 3B
(token number 9): An otherwise unclassified output.