Working with the Abbreviations File - MapInfo_Pro - 2023

If you geocode automatically and find that you have an extremely low hit rate, your database of street addresses may use abbreviations that MapInfo Pro does not recognize. For example, all of your records might use Str as the abbreviation for Street. MapInfo Pro, on the other hand, uses the abbreviation St for Street. Another example: Your database contains addresses that spell out the street numbers (127 Fourteenth St) while MapInfo Pro's table uses the numbers (127 14th St).

Instead of editing all your records, a potentially time-consuming task, you can change which abbreviations are recognized. There is an abbreviation file (MAPINFOW.ABB) that you can modify so that MapInfo Pro will recognize your abbreviations.

Adding to the Abbreviation File

You can add a new item to the abbreviation file by adding a new row. The order in which you add rows is not significant, except in those cases where you expect one substitution pair to compensate for the effects of another. The number of spaces between the first and second items in a row is not significant either.

The abbreviation file is a simple ASCII file - MAPINFOW.ABB. You can edit it in any text editor or word processor. Open the file and make your additions, adding keywords as necessary.

Solving Problems with Abbreviations and Substitutions

Your target table may contain address components which MapInfo Pro cannot handle with its abbreviation file. For example:

You can deal with this problem in two ways:

• Edit addresses in your target table so that it contains items MapInfo Pro can handle.

  or

• Edit MapInfo Pro's abbreviation file so that it can deal with your addresses.

In many cases, the second alternative is easier. MapInfo Pro's abbreviation file consists of pairs of items. The second item in each line is the abbreviation for the first. In working with street files MapInfo Pro searches through the address file to match an item in a target address with the first element in one of the pairs in the abbreviation file. When it finds a match it replaces the matching items with the proper abbreviation.

MapInfo Pro supplies this abbreviation file:

!Version Version 9.5
FIRST   1ST
SECOND  2ND
THIRD   3RD
FOURTH  4TH
FIFTH   5TH
SIXTH   6TH
SEVENTH 7TH
EIGHTH  8TH
NINTH   9TH
TENTH  10TH
NORTH  N
SOUTH  S
EAST   E
WEST   W
ALLEY     AL
AVENUE    AVE
AV        AVE
BOULEVARD BLVD
BRIDGE    BR
CIRCLE    CIR
COURT     CT
DRIVE     DR
EXTENSION EXT
HIGHWAY   HWY
INTERSTATE I
LANE      LN
MOUNT     MT
PARK      PK
PARKWAY   PKWY
PLACE     PL
PLAZA     PLZ
POINT     PT
RAILROAD  RR
ROAD      RD
ROUTE     RT
SAINT     ST
SQUARE    SQ
STREET    ST
STR       ST
TERRACE   TER
!EOLNOSPACE            
,                      
;             
#         
!EOLSPACE              
FLOOR                  
SUITE                  
"P.O. BOX"             
!NOSPACE               
.                      
\"                     
\!                     
\\                     
!SPACE                 
"STATE HIGHWAY"STHWY"  
"N ST"NORTH ST"
"S ST"SOUTH ST"
"E ST"EAST ST"
"W ST"WEST ST"
"N AV"NORTH AV"
"S AV"SOUTH AV"
"E AV"EAST AV"
"W AV"WEST AV"

You can make additions to this file to take care of various problems. Most importantly, you can make several different kinds of additions. MapInfo Pro recognizes four classes of substitution items and it interprets these classes differently. Each class is preceded by the keyword used to identify it in the abbreviation file:

In order for MapInfo Pro to know how to interpret a line, or set of lines, in the abbreviation file, you have to precede the line with the keyword which indicates the appropriate interpretation strategy.

When all of the entries in the abbreviation file use the default interpretation, there is no need to precede any of them with a keyword. When there is no keyword at the beginning of the abbreviation file, MapInfo Pro will treat the initial entries as requiring the default interpretation. Once you add other types of substitution pairs, however, you have to start adding keywords.