Creating auxiliary files - centrusdesktop - 2024.01

You can create customized auxiliary files that contain records that meet your particular needs to use in Centrus Desktop when matching address lists. This section contains information on creating auxiliary files, and contains the following topics:

Auxiliary file requirements

Centrus Desktop requires that the auxiliary file comply with the following:

• File must be a fixed-width ASCII text file
• File must have a .gax extension
• File must have less than 500.000 records
• File must follow the column field order and lengths specified in Auxiliary file layout.

Record types

There are two types of auxiliary file records:

• Street Records – A street record contains a range of one or more addresses on a street. To be a valid street record the record must have the following fields:
  • ZIP Code
  • Street name
  • Street type abbreviation, if part of the address
  • Pre-directional abbreviation, if part of the address
  • Post-directional abbreviation, if part of the address
  • Low house number within the street segment
  • High house number within the street segment
  • Beginning longitude of the street segment
  • Beginning latitude of the street segment

    In addition, a street record may NOT have:

  • Secondary address information, such as unit numbers
  • Mailstops
  • Private mail boxes (PMBs)
• Landmark Records – A landmark record represents a single site. To be a valid landmark record the record must have the following fields:
  • ZIP Code
  • Name of the landmark – placed in the street name field
  • Beginning latitude of the landmark
  • Beginning longitude of the landmark

    In addition, a landmark record must NOT have the following fields:

  • Street type abbreviation
  • Pre-directional abbreviation
  • Post-directional abbreviation
  • Low house number
  • High house number

Centrus Desktop ignores any record that does not comply with the preceding requirements.

Auxiliary file organization

You must comply with the following organizational rules when creating your auxiliary file.

• Use semicolons in the first column to indicate a row is a comment, not a data record; Centrus Desktop ignores rows that begin with a semicolon.
• Order the records within the file by descending ZIP Code then descending street name for optimal performance.
• All records must represent only one side of a street. To represent both sides of a street, you must create a record for each side of the street.
• All records must represent segments that are straight lines. Records cannot represent a non-straight segment.
• If house numbers are present in the record, the house number range must be valid according to USPS rules documented in Publication 28, Appendix E.
• The numeric fields, such as ZIP Codes, must contain all numbers.
• Latitude and Longitude values must be in millionths of decimal degrees.
• Records cannot contain PO Box addresses.

Default values

Centrus Desktop uses the following defaults if you do not include the values in the auxiliary file:

• House number parity = B (both odds and evens)
• Segment direction = A (ascending)
• Side of street = U (unknown)