IE Address (ECAF)
Standard Republic of Ireland Address format as reported by the Eircode ECAF file.
id
string
Global unique internally generated identifier for an address
dataset
string
Source of address.
Example: ecaf
country_iso
any
3 letter country code (ISO 3166-1).
Example: IRL
country_iso_2
string
2 letter country code (ISO 3166-1).
Example: IE
country
string
Full country names (ISO 3166).
Example: Ireland
language
any
Language represented by 2 letter ISO Code (639-1).
Example: en ga
line_1
string [0 .. 200] characters
Address Line 1
line_2
string [0 .. 200] characters
Address Line 2
line_3
string [0 .. 200] characters
Address Line 3
line_4
string [0 .. 200] characters
Address Line 4
line_5
string [0 .. 200] characters
Address Line 5
line_6
string [0 .. 200] characters
Address Line 6
line_7
string [0 .. 200] characters
Address Line 7
line_8
string [0 .. 200] characters
Address Line 8
line_9
string [0 .. 200] characters
Address Line 9
department
string [0 .. 60] characters
The department or division within an organisation. If the department element exists, then the organisation must also exist.
organisation
string [0 .. 60] characters
Organisation name
sub_building_name
string [0 .. 60] characters
The sub-building refers to an apartment, flat or unit within a building.
building_name
string [0 .. 60] characters
The name given to the building. Prepended by sub building, if any, when the sub building does not appear on a line to itself. The building name is omitted if it is the same as either the Organisation or Building Group.
building_number
string [0 .. 40] characters
A number associated with the whole building. The building number may have a numeric and an alphanumeric component, which are concatenated e.g. 2A, or alternatively will have a simple building number or a complex building number. The building number always relates to the whole building and not a sub-unit within it. A complex building number may be one of the following:
- Dual. Two number separated by '/' e.g. 63/64 = 63, 64
- Sequence. An odd or even sequence of numbers with lower and upper bound separated by an underscore '_' e.g.
1_5= 1,3,5 and2_6= 2,4,6 - Range. A range of consecutive numbers with lower and upper bound separated by a dash '-' e.g.
63-66= 63, 64, 56, 66 The building number never appears on a line by itself and can prepend Building Group, Primary Thoroughfare or Primary Locality.
building_group
string [0 .. 60] characters
A building group is a collection of buildings with a collective name, located on or near the same thoroughfare.
primary_thoroughfare
string [0 .. 40] characters
The name of the thoroughfare on which premises are located. It may appear on a line by itself or be appended to either a sub building or building number.
Addresses with thoroughfares can sometimes have the thoroughfare excluded where a Building Group exists, such as a Retail Centre or Business Park, and the thoroughfare is not part of the Postal Address
secondary_thoroughfare
string [0 .. 40] characters
It is never present without a primary thoroughfare. The primary thoroughfare is dependent on the secondary thoroughfare and appears before the secondary thoroughfare in any address.
Secondary thoroughfare are generally used to assist locating a primary thoroughfare.
primary_locality
string [0 .. 40] characters
First locality elements which can refer to areas, districts, industrial estates, towns, etc.
The primary locality refers to the specific place the address is.
In urban areas, the primary locality can be required to distinguish between two thoroughfares of the same name in the same district or town. Industrial estates with named thoroughfares are also held as localities. In rural areas the primary locality is generally a townland name.
secondary_locality
string [0 .. 40] characters
Never present without a primary locality. The secondary locality has a wider geographic scope than the primary locality.
It is the secondary locality therefore which differentiates addresses with the same primary locality name within the same county.
Secondary localities are more likely to be required for rural addresses.
Second locality elements which can refer to areas, districts, industrial estates, towns, etc
The secondary locality helps identify where the primary locality is located.
tertiary_locality
string [0 .. 40] characters
Also known as the Post Town.
The name of the post town associated with the premises for postal delivery purposes. This includes Dublin Postal Districts "Dublin 1" to "Dublin 24".
The post town is a significant element of the Postal Address, however it is not always populated in an address. The official post office guide, Eolaí an Phoist4, describes post towns in the following manner:
"A provincial postal address may include the name of a town or village several miles distant, with which the addressee has little or no connection, and, in some places, especially if this residence happens to be near a county boundary, the name of the neighbouring county instead of the county in which he actually resides. The explanation is that the main mail despatches have to be sent for more detailed sub division to certain centres known as POST TOWNS, chosen because of their accessibility and convenience."
post_county
string [0 .. 30] characters
One of the 26 Counties in the Republic of Ireland. These counties are sub-national divisions used for the purposes of administrative, geographical and political demarcation. Post County is the County associated with the Post Town, not the geographic county in which the building is located. The Post County is normally used as part of the Postal Address with some exceptions e.g. Dublin Postal Districts where the Post County is not used and some Post Towns (e.g. Tipperary, Kildare, etc.) that have the same name as the Post County.
eircode
string [0 .. 60] characters
The seven character Eircode has an A65 F4E2 format. The Eircode is a mandatory address element. The last line of a Postal Address will contain the Eircode, displayed with a space. e.g. A65 F4E2.
The Eircode is always the last line of a Postal Address generated within the state, e.g. if an address has four lines then the Eircode will be on its own on Address Line 5. For inbound international mail the country name IRELAND should be appended as the last line of the Postal Address.
address_reference
string [0 .. 16] characters
The address reference is the An Post GeoDirectory address reference identifier used by the Universal Service Provider.
longitude
string number
The longitude of the postcode (WGS84/ETRS89).
Can be a positive or negative decimal. E.g. -0.1283983
Returns an empty string if no location data is available.
latitude
string number
The latitude of the postcode (WGS84/ETRS89).
Can be a positive or negative decimal. E.g. 51.5083983.
Returns an empty string if no location data is available.
ecaf_id
string [0 .. 10] characters
The unique identifier in the ECAF is the ecaf_id. This unique identifier allows each address in the ECAF to be uniquely identified. It can also be used as index once the data has been imported into a relational database. This is a numeric field that can store values from 0 to 2,147,483,647. It is represented as a number up to 10 digits long. All other fields in ECAF are alphanumeric.