Address Validation Using SAS

[pradeeps]

Team,

We would like to perform our customer's US address validation in SAS, how can we achieve it using SAS, and what SAS Component we can use to do this?

Besides, is there any USPS address validation capability in SAS?

[Reeza]

Do you have SAS DI studio?

[SASKiwi]

SAS has a specific product for data quality issues like address validation and matching called SAS Data Quality  It comes with country-specific customisations including addresses.

[pradeeps]

Thank you very much for your kind reply, do you have any reference document or links that can explain this in details. It would be a great help to me. 

I am also looking at SAS Data Quality and its offering through SAS Data Studio but only basic data transformation techniques are explained here:

https://documentation.sas.com/?cdcId=dprepcdc&cdcVersion=2.2&docsetId=datastudioadv&docsetTarget=p0z...

I would like to know if SAS offers anything like the USPS address database or does it make the job of connecting to such data sources seamlessly and assist in validating the address? The focus here is on Address Validation and not Address Standardization. 

[SASKiwi]

@pradeeps  - SAS Data Quality can be licensed with a third party product called Loqate that provides country-specific address databases against which you can validate addresses. I'm doing exactly that but for New Zealand not the US. I'm also matching against the NZ postal address database which I guess is our equivalent of USPS. BTW geocoding addresses is part of SAS DQ as well if that's of interest.

Have you explored the SAS Data Quality product fact sheet?

BTW Address Standardization is an integral part of Address Validation, you can't really do one without the other.

The best way to learn more about SAS DQ is to talk to one of SAS's product specialists which you could do via your SAS account manager or by raising a Tech Support track.

[pradeeps]

Thank you very much for your kind reply. This is helpful!

[rajdeep]

Hi SASKiwi,

Can we generate the result codes in Locate? Like US_result_code or canada_result_code?

Because now a days we are getting an error for new address verification node.

"Unable to preview step Address Verification (US/Canada) 1
Error Verification Plugin - Failed to obtain USPS data license for US address verification."

So, we raised a track for the same and SAS suggested to use the Locate node, but earlier inside the Address Verification (US/Canada) node, we use to generate the result codes and based on the same result codes we had written some expressions. Now as the Address Verification (US/Canada)  node itself failing so adding the locate node in all the batch jobs is a nightmare and if at all suppose, we are able to map this locate node in all jobs then the next expression node how it'll work we are just wondering. Because we want to suppress the code changes as much as we can.

Can you please suggest any work arounds.

Thanks

[SASKiwi]

@rajdeep  - I don't work with US or Canadian address data so I can't really help. If you are having problems with the Loqate plug-in then you are best to work with SAS Tech Support.

The first thing to confirm is that you have a current Loqate licence. Please note this is separate from your SAS DQ licence and for a different date. For Loqate to work it has to be copied into the Loqate installation folder. Also you don't get any warnings or errors with the licence expiry, it will simply stop working. 

[Reeza]

Address validation is usually done at the data input stage via API to specific validation services, which IMO is not a SAS functionality though you likely could do it that way as well.

The USPS API appears free*, but terms of service prevent you from cleaning your data with it after the fact, it's intended to be used for live transaction data for things you plan to ship....You may want to check the usage terms. I'm not familiar with the US set up as I'm Canadian and we have to pay for ours.

[VincentRejany · Accepted solution]

Hi

SAS Data Quality supports Address Verification and Geocoding for the United States. It is integrated into the product and does require to license SAS Data Quality, SAS Data Enrichment and the data pack for US. It does support CASS certification N, LACS, eLOT, DPV ...

https://support.sas.com/downloads/package.htm?pid=1108

No need for an external API

[pradeeps]

Thanks for your reply, this is really helpful.

Besides, our organization is migrating to SAS Viya and would like to know if this feature is available with SAS Viya too? 

[SASKiwi]

@pradeeps  - There is a version of SAS DQ on Viya but I don't know how it compares to SAS DQ on SAS 9.x. I'd be interested to know how they compare in terms of functionality as well.

[nh2021]

Is there an update on what you found out? My company is on VIYA, and I'm trying to find out how if possible to do address verification. There is not much information online so far.

Thanks.

[SASKiwi]

@nh2021  - Your best bet is to reach out to SAS Tech Support. AFAIK, SAS DQ on Viya is still a work in progress and it will be some time before it matches SAS DQ on SAS 9. You would also need to be on Viya 4 aka Viya 2020.x to get the latest functionality. I would be interested in knowing if or when address validation is available. 

[Reeza]

I don't believe there's an address verification tool outside of DQ. You can use a third party tool, like US Postal Service or you need to subscribe to a paid one.
USPS may require a fee for batch verifications as well. There are many example programs you can find from people who've done this manually that may get you a lot further along. Try searching on lexjansen.com