Guide
U.S. Address Format Guide
A common U.S. address is written from the most specific delivery detail to the broadest location. For most web forms, that means a recipient name, street address, optional apartment or suite, city, two-letter state abbreviation, ZIP Code, and country.
Standard U.S. address layout
Morgan Anderson
1250 Main St, Apt 302
Los Angeles, CA 90015
United States
The second line may contain an apartment, suite, unit, floor, department, or room number. Some systems store this in a separate Address Line 2 field, while others keep it after the street line.
Core fields in a U.S. address
- Recipient name: the person or business name shown on the address.
- Street line: house number, street name, and street type such as St, Ave, Rd, Blvd, Dr, or Ln.
- Secondary unit: Apt, Suite, Unit, Floor, Room, or a hash-style unit such as #204.
- City and state: the city name followed by a two-letter state abbreviation.
- ZIP Code: usually five digits, with optional ZIP+4 for more detailed routing.
Field mapping for QA
| UI field | Example value | What to verify |
|---|---|---|
| Address Line 1 | 1250 Main St | House number and street name stay together. |
| Address Line 2 | Apt 302 | Optional unit data is preserved when empty or populated. |
| City | Los Angeles | Long city names wrap without changing the value. |
| State | CA | The two-letter abbreviation is stored as text. |
| ZIP Code | 90015-1234 | Leading zeros and the ZIP+4 hyphen are preserved. |
Common variants to test
Form QA should include more than one address shape. Useful variants include no unit, Apt or Suite, PO Box, rural route, long street names, short city names, and ZIP+4 values. These variations help reveal layout, validation, import, and export problems.
Practical QA examples
- Empty secondary line: submit a residential address without Address Line 2 and confirm it remains optional.
- Unit value: enter
Suite 420and verify that the label and value survive checkout, storage, and CSV export. - Leading zero: use a ZIP Code such as
02108and confirm it is not converted to a number. - ZIP+4: use
90015-1234and verify the hyphen is accepted or the validation message explains the supported format.
References
Generate examples
Use the U.S. address generator to create random test records with local-looking names, phone numbers, street lines, unit fields, PO Boxes, rural routes, state abbreviations, and ZIP Codes.