how would I go about finding the longest mailing city name in America?

The longest city name I was able to find (that had a Zip code) was "La Canada Flintridge" which is in CA. I found that haphazardly via google. For testing our mailing addresses, I'd like to get a definite "this is the longest city name you could possibly mail to" out of a USPS database.

How wou开发者_StackOverflow社区ld I go about finding this information a) for free and b) quickly?

To the "Not Programming Related" closers: This determines the field length of a City field in our database. That is programming related.

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The USPS databases use a maximum of 28 characters for the place name. Currently there are 6 mailable place names that long (all truncated to fit in 28 chars): GREAT SAND DUNES NATIONAL MO, INDIAN SPRINGS AIR FORCE AUX, KINGSVILLE NAVAL AIR STATION, ROANOKE RAPIDS AIR FORCE STA, SOUTHERN UTE INDIAN RESERVAT, UNITED STATES AIR FORCE ACAD.

However, the USPS database also provides a 13-character form for any place name longer than that. Eg, YOSEMITE NTPK is the short form for YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK. As of 8/1/09, CASS software (used to standardize addresses to USPS regulations) is required to automatically provide 13-character place names when looking up addresses.

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The USPS recommends line lengths for addresses:

http://pe.usps.com/text/pub28/pub28c2.html

Edit: the above link is dead, but general address formatting guidelines can be found at https://pe.usps.com/text/pub28/28c2_001.htm. They're quite extensive and broken down into small sections, so searching through them is a pain. I can no longer find a reference for a maximum length. The recommendation to use the official city/state list still holds.

There's also a file with city and state names (only a sample is available for downloading):

http://www.usps.com/ncsc/addressinfo/citystate.htm

Edit: this link is dead too - your tax dollars at work. The city/state file is still available at a cost of $420, but I couldn't find a sample anymore: https://postalpro.usps.com/address-quality/city-state-product.

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According to Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longest_word_in_English#Place_names It's Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg But that's a lake.. forget it.. :|

The US Geological Survey’s database has these as the longest non-hyphenated community names, with the number of characters:

Mooselookmeguntic, ME (17) Kleinfeltersville, PA (17) Chickasawhatchee, GA (16) Chancellorsville, VA (16) Eichelbergertown, PA (16)

at http://askville.amazon.com/longest-Canadian-city-town/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=3617728

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The longest name of any incorporated place in the United States is Bellefontaine Neighbors, Missouri, 23 characters including spaces.