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A comment on USPS now offers official ZIP Code boundary polygons. Parent comment

Re:USPS now offers official ZIP Code boundary polygons by Zedseayou on Monday November 09, 2026 @04:02PM (#50432084)
Iirc when I worked with these in the past ZIP codes did not map cleanly to boundaries, hence the ZCTAs. Zip codes are sometimes assigned to points, lines, they can overlap, and other weird arcana because they defined mail routes rather than tesselating areas.
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Re:USPS now offers official ZIP Code boundary polygons by Zach_the_Lizard on Monday November 09, 2026 @05:20PM (#50433095)
That they define points makes them useful sometimes for e.g. US sales tax calculation software, though with all things it is lossy
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Re:USPS now offers official ZIP Code boundary polygons by infamouscow on Monday November 09, 2026 @10:06PM (#50435583)
This is a good example of the hardest part of data modeling. Understanding what the thing is that you're modeling actually is.
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