Dear reader,

I'm searching for a specific file/table containing the positions (x-y)
of the postal codes in the Netherlands. The postal code system in the
Netherlands is made up of four digits plus two letters (1234 AB would
be a valid code). What i am planning to do with this data is to find
out how far between two postal codes are. There are about 4000 codes
in the Netherlands.

I am NOT looking for companies selling these tables, for they tend to
be pretty expensive. I am looking for a download  link to the file
itself (the cheap man's solution...).

Thanks for responding,

Hi Koffie-ga,

I think I found what you are looking for. It's a database containing
4895 locations in the Netherlands, together with their locations
(longitude and latitude), as well as telephone prefix, city name,...
It is given out as freeware and there are dozens of possible
applications, such as plotting locations on a map, or as you have
suggested, calculating the distance between locations.

The database is in DbaseIII format, however you can also open it very
easily with Microsoft Access. Just choose "open" from the file menu
and change the filetype to "DbaseIII" (if you don't have Access, let
me know and I'll send you an exported version of the database). From
within Acces, you can export the database to just about any fromat you
want, such as comma-seperated plain text file or an Excel file (which
might be handy for doing some mathematical transformations on the
location coordinates for instance).

The postcodes in the database do not include the 2 letter-prefix,
however I believe they will still allow you to pinpoint their
locations quite accurately. The database has two columns that contain
the start and end range of the codes for a certain region. Usually
these values are the same, however in certain cities, multiple postal
codes are used for the same region. It's quite easy to convert this
list into an ordered list containing only the individual postal codes
and their coordinates, if you know a little about programming (I can
send you such a list if you want).

And now, what you've been waiting for - the links:

Direct download link:
http://lcg-www.uia.ac.be/~erikt/.Henk/nl.dbf

Explanation:
http://lcg-www.uia.ac.be/~erikt/.Henk/welcome.html

The explanation is in Ducth, however judging by your nickname you know
Dutch ;-). If not, I can provide you with additional information.

Hope this helps and good luck with the development of your
application,

rhansenne-ga.

Search terms used: 	database, databank, postcodes

Dear Rhansenne,

I've spotted this database before, just plain forgot where i could
find it. So I knew it was out there! Thanks a bunch for finding it for
me.

Great answer, $15,- well deserved.

Good job!

Why not use MapBlast (www.mapblast.com)
Click on Directions
Hit tab till you come to the country
Hit N for Netherlands
Tab twice
Insert first postcode
Tab 6 times
Hit N for Netherlands
Tab twice
Insert second postcode
Click on the Get Directions button at the bottom
For instance I used 3851 PT (an Ermelo postcode) and 3841 DS (a
Harderwijk postcode)
The result: "The estimated travel time is 10 minutes for 6.43 km of
travel, total of 10 steps."
Be careful hitting the Back button, as it reverts to United States.

Peter, in Scotland

Koffie, I believe bibliometricians/informetricians do this type of
thing. Perhaps you could try contacting them? Yann