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ing to USPS, ZIP code assignments depend largely on delivery areas and postal routes and may not correspond to municipal or perceived community boundaries.

ZIP Codes are numbered with the first digit representing a certain group of U.S. states, the second and third digits together representing a region in that group (or perhaps a large city) and the fourth and fifth digits representing a group of delivery addresses within that region.

The most complete ZIP Code is a nine-digit number consisting of five digits, a hyphen, and four digits, which the USPS describes by its trademark ZIP+4. The correct format for a numeric ZIP+4 code is five digits, a hyphen, and four digits.

Shorten to Five Digits Insert a new column to the right of your current zip code column. Type or copy and paste =LEFT(C2,5) , replacing C2 with your cell's identifier. Drag the formula down the rest of your column.

So what do the extra numbers mean? These last 4 digits represent specific delivery routes within delivery areas. This extra detail means an even more precise matching to a more granular level. It could represent a handful of houses on one side of a street, or even a single building that receives a high volume of mail.

Initially, the zip code was only a two-digit number: the first denoted the city, the second denoted the state. But as the need for delivery expanded, so did the concept of the zip code. As of 1963, zip codes' numbers are determined by a few factors: the area, the regional postal facility and the local zone.

The largest ZIP Code in the contiguous U.S. is 89049, Tonopah, NV, at 10,821 square miles. Twenty-four of the top 25 largest ZIP Codes in the country are located in Alaska – ranging from the largest, 99734, at more than 30,000 square miles to 99741 at 7,600 square miles.