Product supply

Supply format and media

Code-Point with Polygons is available in the following formats:

• Shapefile

• MapInfo MID / MIF

• MapInfo TAB file

• Vector tiles (MBTiles)

• GeoPackage (GPKG)

Code-Point with Polygons is supplied as a zip file in the Data folder, either downloaded from the OS Data Hub or on a DVD (TAB, Shapefile and MID / MIF formats only). The Code-Point polygon files contain substantial amounts of information, which in shapefile, MID / MIF, TAB and vector tiles formats necessitate that file compression be used.

The vector tile and GeoPackage formats of the product are not available as a DVD supply option.

Coverage and file sizes

The polygon data coverage is Great Britain. The shapefile, TAB and MID / MIF formats are split into 120 files where each file represents the notional geometry for a postcode area. The vector tiles and GeoPackage formats are supplied as one national file.

File sizes for Great Britain are approximately:

• Shapefile: 610 MB

• TAB: 524 MB

• MID / MIF: 564 MB

• Vector tiles (MBTiles): 457 MB

• GeoPackage (GPKG): 708 MB

The following two CSV text files accompany the polygon data:

• Vertical_streets: A list of polygons, identified by a serial number that is prefixed by the letter V, which contain more than one postcode. This situation can occur in, for example, a block of flats where there is more than one postcode within a single building.

• Discard_files: A list of the postcodes for which polygons have not been included because there is no data of sufficient quality to use in the polygon creation, or because their constituent addresses lie outside the extent of the realm (coastline). The discard file also contains a list of PO Box postcodes as none of these will have been used in the creation of the polygon set.

The associated Code-Point coverage is for the United Kingdom, provided as 121 comma-separated value (CSV) files, as it includes Northern Ireland postcodes. Polygons are not provided for Northern Ireland postcodes. Code-Point contains georeferenced postcode unit data, with associated metadata such as address counts and quality indicators. It also provides the health and administrative area codes related to each postcode.

The following text files that are associated with the Code-Point data provide:

• The full-text equivalents of the administrative area codes.

• The number of postcode units in each postcode area.