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Locations and the Use of Commas

Author: Reference Number: AA-00968 Views: 20673 Created: 2014-10-16 03:31 PM Last Updated: 2014-12-11 12:38 PM 0 Rating/ Voters

Locations and the Use of Commas

Most people enter locations with commas between the city, county, state/province, and country.  This makes it much easier to distinguish the different parts of a location. 'New York, NY' can be confusing.  Is it New York city or New York county?  On the other hand, ', New York, NY' makes it clear that it is New York county, not city. The rules are simple:

1. Enter location names from smallest geographical division to largest, divided by commas, such as city, county, state/province, country.
2. Enter the location name as it was known at the time of the event.
3. When part of the location name is unknown, leave a blank followed by a comma, such as 'city, , state/province, country' or ', , , country'.

Here are some examples:

San Diego, San Diego, California, United States (all 4 geographical divisions known)
Toronto, , Ontario, Canada (county unknown)
, , , Denmark (only the country known)

Below is a screen shot showing how the locations rules are implemented in the Master Location List:



Following these simple location name rules for geographic divisions will make it easier to find places in the Geo Location Database and also allow you to sort locations in the Master Location List in various orders as well as expand and contract location names to add or remove United States, etc.  The extra commas can be removed from reports and charts (go to Report Options and select the Format tab).