PT/PostalCode version 0.01
==========================

Validates Portuguese Postal Codes (that's the four digit code; in
order to validate the seven digit codes of the form xxxx-xxx we would
need a huge list of codes that would probably change every day).

  use PT::PostalCode;

  validate($postalcode);

  code_is_from_area($postalcode,$city);
  code_is_from_subarea($postalcode,$district);

  code_is_from($postalcode,$district,$city);

  range_from_subarea($district);

  code_is_valid($code);
  areas_of_code($code);
  subareas_of_code($code);

=head1 PORTUGUESE POSTAL CODES

Regarding postal codes, Portugal is divided into areas and then into
subareas. This division does not correspond to the most expected one
(districts and then cities); instead, it was apparently made in a
way it would be easier to redirect mail.

Postal codes in Portugal do not seem to follow any particular rule
(but there was probably one in the beginning). There is no easy way of
saying where a given code belongs to.

Each subarea has a minimum and a maximum code. This means it only
allows for codes within that range. HOWEVER:

1) The existance of a range within a subarea does not imply the
existance of every single code in it.

2) The existance of a code within a subarea does not mean the code
does not exist in another area too.

THIS MEANS:

1) You can check if a code belongs to a certain area/subarea, but that
does not mean it doesn't also belong to other(s) area(s)/subarea(s).

2) Even if a code is within the range of a certain subarea, that does
not mean it is an existing code (that would need a huge list of codes,
which is always subject to alterations).

INSTALLATION

To install this module type the following:

   perl Makefile.PL
   make
   make test
   make install

SEE ALSO

The POD documentation in PostalCode.pm

DEPENDENCIES

No dependencies

COPYRIGHT AND LICENCE

Copyright (C) 2004 Jose Alves de Castro

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the same terms as Perl itself. 

