NOTICE: help.openstreetmap.org is no longer in use from 1st March 2024. Please use the OpenStreetMap Community Forum

I have been using the OpenStreetMap Nominatim service for 4 months geocoding postcodes without any issue until today 13/10/2021. For example a valid postcode of "NW10 8QB" returns no result but if you do a structure search for Sapphire Road this returns the correct result with the same postcode as above "NW10 8QB" This postcode geocoded correctly yesterday using the OpenStreetMap Nominatim service so something must have broken since? Can someone please check and confirm the problem and provide a likely resolution timeframe?

Kind Regards,

Tom

asked 13 Oct '21, 13:11

Tommy_F's gravatar image

Tommy_F
11112
accept rate: 0%


We imported August Royalmail data for GB yesterday but compared to the May data many postcodes were missing spaces ("NW10 8QB" vs "NW108QB"). Tracked in https://github.com/osm-search/gb-postcode-data/issues/9 Timeframe is 1-2 days

permanent link

answered 13 Oct '21, 13:42

mtmail's gravatar image

mtmail
4.8k1574
accept rate: 27%

@mtmail: there doesn't seem to be a consistent format for postcodes in UK official data: choices are <out><space><in>; no space, or the outcode padded to 4 or 5 with spaces. Most people expect the first format. Often it is best to take the rightmost 3 characters & then trim what is left. There should always be a number followed by two characters for the last part of the code, the outcode can have from 2 to 4 characters starting with a letter.

(13 Oct '21, 20:22) SK53 ♦

@sk53 Thanks, I made sure it's always with space now (https://github.com/osm-search/gb-postcode-data/issues/9). It used to be the case with Ordenance Survey OSCode exports, but with their August data they changed/broke it.

(14 Oct '21, 02:04) mtmail

Follow this question

By Email:

Once you sign in you will be able to subscribe for any updates here

By RSS:

Answers

Answers and Comments

Markdown Basics

  • *italic* or _italic_
  • **bold** or __bold__
  • link:[text](http://url.com/ "title")
  • image?![alt text](/path/img.jpg "title")
  • numbered list: 1. Foo 2. Bar
  • to add a line break simply add two spaces to where you would like the new line to be.
  • basic HTML tags are also supported

Question tags:

×689
×55
×19

question asked: 13 Oct '21, 13:11

question was seen: 1,423 times

last updated: 14 Oct '21, 02:04

NOTICE: help.openstreetmap.org is no longer in use from 1st March 2024. Please use the OpenStreetMap Community Forum