HOW TO

Match addresses that contain Saint in the street name without changing the reference data

Last Published: April 25, 2020

Summary

Instructions provided describe how to prevent the abbreviation for 'SAINT' (ST) from being standardized to 'SAINT' when geocoding without having to modify the reference data used to create the address locator or the addresses in the input address table.

The street name in the address '125 ST ANDREWS AVE' is standardized to 'SAINT ANDREWS' by default. If the reference data used to build the address locator does not spell out the word 'SAINT', addresses on this street will not be matched.

Procedure

Modify the spedit.tbl, us_addr.cls and us_intsc.cls files in WordPad to maintain formatting when editing the values. These files are located in the <ArcGIS_install_location>\Geocode directory for ArcGIS Desktop and <SDEHOME>\Geocode for ArcSDE.

  1. Open the spedit.tbl file in WordPad.
  2. Un-comment the following line by removing the semicolon in the beginning of the line:

    Code:
    ;ST ST

  3. Click File > Save when done editing the spedit.tbl file.
  4. Open the us_addr.cls file in WordPad.
  5. Add the following line, in alphabetical order, based on the third column in the list of values.

    Code:
    SAINT ST A

  6. Click File > Save when done editing the us_addr.cls file.
  7. Repeat steps 4-6 when modifying the us_intsc.cls file.
    Note:
    Rebuild the geocoding index using the Rebuild Geocoding Index tool in ArcToolbox > Geocoding Tools (9.0, 9.1) or rebuild the address locator using the Rebuild Address Locator tool in ArcToolbox > Geocoding Tools (9.2 9.3, 9.3.1) after making these changes if an address locator already exists.

Article ID:000009358

Software:
  • ArcMap 9 x
  • Legacy Products

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