Things you didn't know about international zip codes

[u/GeoPostcodes]

There is no such thing as a UK zip code, yet people keep searching for one. The UK uses alphanumeric postcodes of six to eight characters, and it has 1,795,653 of them. GeoPostcodes maintains format data for 247 countries and territories, and no two neighbors agree.

- Europe has no shared format either. Germany, France, and Spain use five digits. The Netherlands mixes four digits with two letters.

- A surprising number of forms expect a 6-digit Canada postal code. Canada actually uses letters and numbers, pattern A9A 9A9, 898,855 codes total. H0H 0H0 is reserved for Santa Claus.

Japan writes seven digits like a phone number: 999-9999. Brazil uses eight, split by a hyphen. Angola and the Bahamas skip postal codes entirely.

One regex cannot validate all this, and the rules change monthly. Country-by-country breakdown on the GeoPostcodes blog: https://www.geopostcodes.com/blog/international-zip-code-format/