>>Technically, doesn't the Canadian code always use a space at char #4, and is 7 chars long? That's the way I always have it, and I deal with a lot of Canadians.
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>I looked in the DMM - it shows the use of the space as optional in the printed address, and it must be omitted in the PostCode barcode. The space in the middle is primarily an aid for postal employees doing manual sortations.
That makes sense. For display, though, the space is a real help for more than just postal employees. All the Canadians I correspond with, and the businesses with Canadian offices that we display addresses for in my GUI all use the space for readability. It doesn't take a very long string of mixed digits and letters to become difficult to read. Once you use them a little, you really do think of them as two separate little strings.
The Anonymous Bureaucrat,
and frankly, quite content not to be
a member of either major US political party.