• Darren (unregistered)

    For those of us outside the US, could anyone explain the zip code one?

  • (nodebb)

    Since addresses on envelopes are all OCR'ed these days, using O for 0 is a clever* solution.

    • i.e. someone didn't know the correct solution
  • (author) in reply to Darren

    Zip-codes in the US are not alphanumeric, strictly numeric.

  • (nodebb) in reply to Darren

    ZIP ("Zone Improvement Program") codes are five-digit postal codes ranging from 00501 to 99950, indicating where in the United States a letter or parcel should be delivered to. Per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZIP_Code, the codes with a leading zero are used in Connecticut (CT), Massachusetts (MA), Maine (ME), New Hampshire (NH), New Jersey (NJ), New York (NY, Fishers Island only), Puerto Rico (PR), Rhode Island (RI), Vermont (VT), Virgin Islands (VI), Army Post Office Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East (APO AE); Fleet Post Office Europe and the Middle East (FPO AE).

    The leading zero is supposed to be mandatory, but B.J.H. has given us evidence that if it's absent the letters can get through anyway!

    In the photo, the organization sending this letter (epic.org) has used a letter O in place of the leading zero.

  • Charles Johnston (unregistered) in reply to Darren
    Comment held for moderation.
  • Steve (not that one) (unregistered) in reply to Remy Porter
    Comment held for moderation.
  • (nodebb)

    I recall (perhaps it was a previous WTF) where a database was being loaded with a zipcode column, and it was erroring out only on the east-coast zipcodes that looked like "08" or "09" or had 8's and 9's in them somewhere. Very puzzling until someone mentioned "octal".

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