# Saudi Arabia Address Standard

## Overview

A Saudi address is a set of numbers more than a set of names. The National Address, run by Saudi Post, gives every building a four-digit building number, a four-digit additional number and a five-digit postcode, and together they identify the building on the map. Street and district names complete the address, but they are written in Arabic or in one of several English spellings, so the numbers are what make an address unambiguous. The region, which most business records carry, is not written on the envelope at all.

This article describes the Saudi address format, how CDQ represents it in the CDQ address model, how the regions and postcodes are handled, and which reference data CDQ maintains. It is the reference for anyone mapping Saudi business partner data into CDQ, or consuming curated Saudi addresses from CDQ.

**In this article, you will understand:**

- How a Saudi National Address is structured, and which elements are needed to deliver mail
- What the building number, the additional number and the postcode encode
- How CDQ expects the additional number and the short address to be supplied
- How each element maps to a concept in the CDQ address model, and which SAP field it reaches
- Which reference data CDQ maintains for Saudi Arabia, and where it is incomplete


Available in:

* [CDQ Wiki: business partner metadata for Saudi Arabia](https://meta.cdq.com/DataModel:CDQ/Business_Partner/Address/Country/SA): browse the published Saudi metadata


## How a Saudi Arabia address is built

| Specific to Saudi Arabia | Why it matters |
|  --- | --- |
| Every building has a building number | the four-digit building number is written before the street name, and it is unique within the postcode area |
| An additional number locates the building precisely | four more digits that, with the building number and the postcode, identify a single delivery point. Saudi Post writes it on the district line; business systems often write it after the postcode |
| The district is part of the address | the district (حي, *hayy*) is written on its own line, and street names repeat across districts of the same city |
| The region is not postal | the thirteen regions are not written on the envelope; the city and the postcode carry the address |
| Two scripts, many spellings | an address may be held in Arabic or in English, and English spellings of the same name vary (`Makkah`, `Mecca`; `Al Arid`, `Al Aarid`) |
| A short address encodes the whole address | eight characters, such as `RAGI2929`, that Saudi Post can resolve to the full National Address |


### The elements

| Element | What it is | Used to address mail | Example |
|  --- | --- | --- | --- |
| region | one of the thirteen regions (منطقة, *mintaqah*) | no | Riyadh |
| city | the city or locality the building is in | yes, and it is required | `RIYADH` |
| district | the district of the city | yes | Al Arid |
| building number and street | four-digit building number, then the street name | yes | `2929 Rayhanah Bint Zaid` |
| unit | an office, unit or apartment inside the building | yes, where it applies | `Office 18` |
| additional number | four digits that locate the building precisely | yes | `8118` |
| postcode | five digits | yes | `13337` |
| short address | four letters and the building number, standing for the whole address | optional, in addition to the full address | `RAGI2929` |


A complete address in the form Saudi Post asks for:

```
Mr Mohammad Dayan
RAGI2929
2929 Rayhanah Bint Zaid
8118 Al Arid District
13337
RIYADH
SAUDI ARABIA
```

The short address line is optional. The additional number is written in front of the district, and the postcode stands above the city on a line of its own. A unit, such as `Office 18`, follows the street on the same line or goes on a line of its own below it. That is a presentation convention for the envelope; CDQ stores each value separately.

Mail to a post office box uses a separate postcode, the one of the post office, and no building or district:

```
Mr Abdullah Nassir
P.O. Box 15501
21454
MAKKAH
SAUDI ARABIA
```

### The postcode and the additional number

The postcode has five digits. The first digit names a postal region, which does not always coincide with an administrative region: `1` is Riyadh, `2` Makkah, `3` the Eastern Province, `4` Madinah and Tabuk, `5` Al Qassim and Ha'il, `6` Asir, Najran and Al Bahah, `7` the Northern Borders and Al Jawf, and `8` Jazan. The second and third digits name the main post office, and the last two the postal zone.

The additional number is four further digits. In the CDQ standard it is written **as an extension of the postcode**, after a hyphen:

```
13337-8118
```

This is the form most business and e-invoicing systems already use, and it keeps the additional number out of the district name. A five-digit postcode without an extension is also valid; post office box addresses never carry one.

### Properties that regularly cause integration errors

The additional number ends up in the district
Copied from the envelope, the district line reads `8118 Al Arid District`. Stored as it stands, the district value carries the additional number and the word *District*, so it no longer matches any other record of the same district, and the additional number is lost to anything reading the postcode. Split the line: `8118` goes into the postcode extension, `Al Arid` into the district.

**The building number comes first.** `2929 Rayhanah Bint Zaid` is building 2929 on Rayhanah Bint Zaid street. A system that expects the number after the street can take the building number for part of the street name.

**English spellings vary.** Street, district and city names are transliterated from Arabic in several ways, and abbreviations such as `St`, `Rd` and `Dist.` are used inconsistently. Two records of the same building can share the numbers and differ in every name. Compare on the building number, the additional number and the postcode before comparing names.

**The short address is not an address on its own.** `RAGI2929` can be resolved by Saudi Post, but it carries no street, district or city that another system can read. Send the full address; the short address may accompany it but does not replace it.

**The region is often written as a province.** Older records name the regions as provinces (`Makkah Province`) or use the name of the capital city (`Riyadh`, which is both). The region does not appear on the envelope, so it is frequently missing or inferred.

## How CDQ models a Saudi Arabia address

The CDQ address model has two parallel hierarchies. **Administrative areas** represent the political containers, typed `REGION` and `COUNTY`. **Localities** represent the places themselves, typed `CITY`, `DISTRICT`, `QUARTER` or `BLOCK`. Streets are held as **thoroughfares** with the number in its own field, and units and offices as typed **premises**.

Saudi Arabia maps as follows:

| Saudi Arabia element | CDQ concept | Type | SAP field |
|  --- | --- | --- | --- |
| region | administrative area, level 1 | `REGION` | `region` |
| city | locality, level 1 | `CITY` | `city` |
| district | locality, level 2 | `DISTRICT` | `district` |
| street | thoroughfare | `STREET` | street |
| building number | thoroughfare number | n/a | house number |
| office, unit | premise | `UNIT`, `SUITE` | street 5 |
| apartment | premise | `APARTMENT` | room number |
| PO Box | postal delivery point | `POST_OFFICE_BOX` | PO box, with the post office's postcode in the PO box post code |
| postcode with additional number | post code | `REGULAR` | post code |


The building number and the street stay in separate fields, so the order in which they are written does not affect the model. The short address has no field: it is input only, and it is not part of a curated address.

### Mapping the region to an SAP region key

CDQ delivers the region in administrative area level 1, with its ISO 3166-2 code (`SA-01` for Riyadh). The codes run from `SA-01` to `SA-14`; there is no `SA-13`. An SAP system does not validate against ISO: it validates the region field against its own region key table, `T005S`, which is part of a customer's configuration.

The region key is customer-specific configuration, so this standard does not define one: a `T005S` is specific to a customer and to a client, and no single value would be correct everywhere. What this standard fixes is the ISO 3166-2 code. The mapping from it to the key your system expects is yours to maintain.

### Worked example

`The Modern Company, 7894 Sadi ibn Wahb St, Office 18, 3768 As Salamah Dist., 23437 Jeddah`, in the CDQ address model:

| Field | Value |
|  --- | --- |
| Country | `SA` |
| Administrative area 1 (`REGION`) | Makkah Province |
| Administrative area 1 code | `SA-02` |
| Locality 1 (`CITY`) | Jeddah |
| Locality 2 (`DISTRICT`) | As Salamah |
| Thoroughfare (`STREET`) | Sadi ibn Wahb St |
| Thoroughfare number | `7894` |
| Premise (`UNIT`) | `18` |
| Post code | `23437-3768` |


Jeddah is in the Makkah region, although its name does not say so; the region is not written on the envelope.

## Reference data CDQ maintains for Saudi Arabia

These tables are extracts
The examples below show the shape of each dataset, not its full contents. The complete published lists for Saudi Arabia are on the CDQ Wiki page [business partner metadata for Saudi Arabia](https://meta.cdq.com/DataModel:CDQ/Business_Partner/Address/Country/SA), which also covers legal forms, identifier types and the integrated data sources.

### Regions

**13 entries**, each keyed by its ISO 3166-2 code, with English names and common alternative spellings.

| Code | Name | Also matched as |
|  --- | --- | --- |
| `SA-01` | Riyadh Province | Riyadh, منطقة الرياض |
| `SA-02` | Makkah Province | Makkah |
| `SA-03` | Al Madinah Province | Madinah |
| `SA-04` | Eastern Province | n/a |
| `SA-09` | Jazan Province | Jazan, Jizan |
| `SA-14` | Aseer Province | 'Asir |


### Postcode format

Five digits starting with `1` to `8`, optionally followed by the four-digit additional number, with or without a hyphen. The value is not rewritten: a missing hyphen is not inserted, and an additional number is not added where it was not supplied.

What CDQ standardises
The **region** is standardised against reference data, by name or by code, and delivered with its ISO 3166-2 code. That code is what to map an SAP region key from.

The **building number** and the **street** are held in separate fields, so the building number reaches the SAP house number field whichever order it was written in.

## Current limitations

These are the gaps worth knowing about before designing an integration.

| Limitation | What it means for an integration |
|  --- | --- |
| **The additional number is not separated from the district** | CDQ does not recognise `8118 Al Arid District` as an additional number and a district. Supply the additional number in the postcode, as `13337-8118`, and the district name on its own. |
| **The extended postcode is not built** | CDQ keeps the postcode as supplied and does not add the additional number. Where the extension matters to you, supply it. |
| **The short address is not resolved** | A short address such as `RAGI2929` is not expanded into a full address. Supply the full National Address. |
| **The region is not derived from the postcode** | An address without a region is not given one from its postcode. Supply the region, by name or by its ISO 3166-2 code, where you need it. |
| **Region names in Arabic are not all published** | Only Riyadh carries its Arabic name. An Arabic region name on input may not be standardised, and a region requested in Arabic is delivered in English. Supply the region by its ISO 3166-2 code where you hold Arabic data. |
| **No Saudi street or unit vocabulary is published** | Street types (`Street`, `Road`, شارع, طريق), unit words (`Office`, `Unit`) and the Arabic post office box abbreviation (ص.ب) are not published for Saudi Arabia, so abbreviations are not expanded and units written into the street text may not be parsed into a premise. Supply units in their own fields. |
| **The street line is formatted with the number after the street** | The formatted street line reads `Rayhanah Bint Zaid 2929`, not in the Saudi order. The street and the building number are separate fields; build the line from them where you need the Saudi order. |


## Summary

A Saudi National Address is identified by its numbers: a four-digit building number written before the street, a four-digit additional number and a five-digit postcode. The district and the city complete it, and the region is not written on the envelope. Names are held in Arabic or in one of several English spellings, so the numbers are the reliable part of the address.

In the CDQ standard the additional number is an extension of the postcode, `13337-8118`, and the district carries only the district name. The short address is input only and never replaces the full address.

CDQ places the region in administrative area level 1 with its ISO 3166-2 code, the city in locality level 1 and the district in locality level 2. The building number and the street stay in separate fields, and offices and units are typed premises.

All 13 regions are maintained as CDQ reference data. Arabic region names, Saudi street and unit vocabulary, and the separation of the additional number from the district are not yet available.

## Related Resources

- [Business partner metadata for Saudi Arabia](https://meta.cdq.com/DataModel:CDQ/Business_Partner/Address/Country/SA)
- [India Address Standard](/documentation/_public/product-manuals/address-guard/country-standards/india-address-standard)
- [United States Address Standard](/documentation/_public/product-manuals/address-guard/country-standards/united-states-address-standard)
- [Korea Address Standard](/documentation/_public/product-manuals/address-guard/country-standards/korea-address-standard)


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