Editing Postal code (section)

=== Country code prefixes ===
[[ISO 3166-1 alpha-2]] country codes were recommended by the [[European Committee for Standardization]] as well as the [[Universal Postal Union]] to be used in conjunction with postal codes starting in 1994,<ref name="daCruz_ColumbiaUni">{{cite web| last =da Cruz| first =Frank| title =Frank's Compulsive Guide to Postal Addresses| publisher =Columbia University| date =17 May 2008| url =http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/postal.html#europe| access-date =4 June 2008| url-status =live| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20080725104707/http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/postal.html#europe| archive-date =25 July 2008}}</ref> but they have not become widely used. [[Andorra]], [[Azerbaijan]], [[Barbados]], [[Ecuador]], [[Latvia]] and [[Saint Vincent and the Grenadines]] use the [[ISO 3166-1 alpha-2]] as a prefix in their postal codes.

In some countries (such as in [[continental Europe]], where a numeric postcode format of four or five digits is commonly used) the numeric postal code is sometimes prefixed with a [[country code]] when sending international mail to that country.