Supply formats

CSV and GeoPackage

GeoPackage is an open, standard, platform-independent, portable, self-describing, compact format for transferring geospatial information. For more information on this format, please see our Getting started with GeoPackage guide.

The following tables give a comparison between the CSV attributes and the GeoPackage attribution.

CSV attribution and format

Mnemonic	Description	Data type	Size
PC	Postcode	A8	8
PQ	Postitional_quality_indicator	I2	1
PR	PO_Box_indicator	A1	1
TP	Total_number_of_delivery_points	I3	*
DQ	Delivery_points_used_to_create_the_CPLC	I3	*
RP	Domestic_delivery_points	I3	*
BP	Non_domestic_delivery_points	I3	*
PD	PO_Box_delivery_points	I3	*
MP	Matched_address_premises	I3	*
UM	Unmatched_delivery_points	I3	*
EA	Eastings	I6	*
NO	Northings	I7	*
CY	Country_code	A9	9
RH	NHS_regional_HA_code	A9	9
LH	NHS_HA_code	A9	9
CC	Admin_county_code	A9	9
DC	Admin_district_code	A9	9
WC	Admin_ward_code	A9	9
LS	Postcode_type	A1	1

GeoPackage attribution and format

Description	Data type	Size
postcode	TEXT	8
positional_quality_indicator	TINYINT	1
po_box_indicator	TEXT	1
total_number_of_delivery_points	TINYINT	*
delivery_points_used_to_create_the_cplc	TINYINT	*
domestic_delivery_points	TINYINT	*
non_domestic_delivery_points	TINYINT	*
po_box_delivery_points	TINYINT	*
matched_address_premises	TINYINT	*
unmatched_delivery_points	TINYINT	*
N/A	N/A	N/A
N/A	N/A	N/A
country_code	TEXT	9
nhs_regional_ha_code	TEXT	9
nhs_ha_code	TEXT	9
admin_county_code	TEXT	9
admin_district_code	TEXT	9
admin_ward_code	TEXT	9
postcode_type	TEXT	1

CSV format

• Those fields containing text (A) will be enclosed by double quotes which have not been included in the sizes listed in the table above. An asterisk (*) denotes variable length.

• Fields with null data will appear as "" for text and 0 for numeric.

• Each record will be terminated with a carriage return character (ASCII 13) and a line feed character (ASCII 10).

Example of a Code-Point CSV record: "SO160AS",10,"N",1,1,0,1,0,1,0,437292,115542,"E92000001","E19000002","E18000009","E10000014","E07000093","E05012936","L"

GeoPackage format

Note that there are no eastings or northings in GeoPackage; the geometry is already created in the GeoPackage container and is not listed as data but will be seen as a column in a database (PostGIS) called geom with a coordinate reference system of British National Grid EPSG: 27700 for GB postcodes.

Also supplied with the GeoPackage is the Code-Point data for Northern Ireland. This is already projected in Irish Grid EPSG: 29902 so will display in the correct position for this region.

Fields with a null value will appear as [Null] for text (PostGIS) or as an empty field in a GIS. A null numeric value will appear as 0 in both a database and an attribute table in a GIS. Example of a GeoPackage record taken from the Information tool in QGIS:

GeoPackage record as displayed in QGIS.

The FeatureID (FID) is autogenerated by a GIS when the GeoPackage is loaded into it; it is not present in the GeoPackage.