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The 2020?2022 edition of the Associated Press Stylebook says to write ?all-caps ZIP for Zone Improvement Plan, but always lowercase the word code.? But don't despair.

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.

United States ZIP codes are five numerical digits long. ZIP+4 codes, also known as add-on or plus-four codes, include four additional digits that identify a geographic segment within a ZIP code delivery area.

A United States postal code, for example, might be either five digits or five digits followed a hyphen (dash) and another four digits (12345-1234). If you are validating US postal codes, allow for both conditions. The following rule validates a field that can be five digits, five digits + dash + 4 digits, or blank.

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.

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.

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.