How well has the address matched?

Match Overview

You can get an initial view of how well the address has matched by checking the Result object. Broadly we have three scenarios:

  1. We have a Postcode
  2. We have no address match
  3. We don't have a Postcode, but we have matched some or all of the address

Scenarios 1 and 2 are pretty straightforward, and you can look at the MatchLevel and AddressType objects to determine exactly how well the Scenario 3 addresses matched.

Scenario 1 - We have a Postcode
Result Code Result Description  Example Address
100 Postcode Appended Autoaddress, Ground Floor, 89-94 Capel Street, Dublin 1
110 Postcode Validated Autoaddress, Ground Floor, 89-94 Capel Street, Dublin 1, D01 H0C2
120 Postcode Amended Gamma, 4 Inns Court, Winetavern Street, Dublin 8, D08 XY01
130 Address Amended To Match Postcode 5 Inns Court, Winetavern Street, Dublin 8, D08 XY00
140 Postcode And Address Amended 5 Inns Court, Winetavern Street, Dublin 8, D0B XY00
150 Postcode Not Validated New Company Ltd, D08 XY00
Scenario 2 - We have no match
Result Code Result Description Example Address
210 Postcode Retired A75 D266
550 No Address Match unknownland
600 Foreign Address Detected White Hart Ln, London, United Kingdom
700 Invalid Address Entered DO NOT POST
Scenario 3 - We don't have a Postcode
Result Code Result Description Example Address 
200 Postcode Not Available Pavilion, The University of Dublin Trinity College, Dublin 2
300 Non Unique Address Curelaim, Turlough, Castlebar, Co. Mayo
400 Partial Address Match Middle Earth, Winetavern Street, Dublin 8
500 Incomplete Address Entered Dunboyne, Co. Meath

Note: In the case of 200 we don't have a postcode as one isn't available for the address, but we have fully matched the address to the Address Point or Organisation.

How do we tell how well the address has matched?  Every address that is matched (partially or fully) returns the unique AddressId that it has matched to, the AddressType of that Id, and the address table (MatchLevel) of the Id.  The AddressType is one of the detailed list of address types available here. You normally don't need this level of detail, we recommend combining the coarser MatchLevel with some of the AddressType values to get a short, workable list which we'll call MatchSubLevel as shown in the table below (ordered from least to most accurate address match)  :

Note: An address point record exists for every unique address within a building.  A standard residential property will have one address point.  Apartment buildings and multi-unit commercial buildings will have one address point for every unique address within the building.  Eircodes are assigned at the address point level.


Match SubLevel Name Match Level Address Types Example Address
 0 No Match  0 
13 County 9 3900 Some Town, Meath
11 City 7,8 3800 Some Street, Cork
12 Postal District  7,8 3750 Somewhere, Dublin 15
9 Town 7,8 3700 Some Street, Dunboyne, Meath
8 Village 7,8 3600 Some House, Kinvara, Galway
17 Rural Locality (Townland) 7,8 3400, 1130 Curelaim, Turlough, Castlebar, Mayo
16 Urban Area  7,8 3200, 3350 Some Street, Rathmines, Dublin 6
7 Locality 7,8 All except
1130, 3200, 3350, 3400, 3600, 3700, 3750, 3800 		Some Business Ltd, Mountmahon Industrial Estate, Abbeyfeale, Limerick
6 Thoroughfare 6 All Some House, Winetavern Street, Dublin 8
5 Building Group 5 All Some Place, Limerick Institute of Technology, Moylish Park, Limerick
 4  Building Number  2  All  2 Market Street, Bantry, Co. Cork
3 Building 4 All Some Business Ltd, Inns Court, Winetavern Street, Dublin 8
2 Address Point (Eircode) 2 All Pavilion, The University of Dublin Trinity College, Dublin 2
1 Organization 3 All Autoaddress, 4 Inns Court, Winetavern Street, Dublin 8



E.g. To test if the address has matched to better than Town Level (MatchSubLevel 1 to 9)
(MatchLevel > 0 AND MatchLevel  <= 6) OR (MatchLevel in (7,8) AND AddressType Not In (3700,3750,3800))

Notes on Result Code 500 - Incomplete Address

An address is deemed incomplete if there are no examples of a Postal address in the ECAD that comprise just the entered address.  For example, there are no addresses that are just "Dublin 7" or "Dunboyne, Meath", the addresses in ECAD also have a thoroughfare name and house number/name.  There are cases where a user will insist that they have given their full address and that nothing else is required.  This can happen when a townland or locality in the Postal address is not used locally.  Take for example the following address "Borris, Co. Carlow".  This will be returned as an Incomplete Address, as according to the Postal addresses in ECAD all addresses ending in "Borris, Co. Carlow" additionally have at least a townland or thoroughfare.  If you get a Result code of 500 indicating an Incomplete Address, you may want to alter your response or logic depending on the MatchSubLevel as described in the table above.  For example, you may want to provide a different message/address flow if the user has matched to a Village (e.g. Borris) as opposed to a City (e.g. Limerick).