Federal Information Processing Standard State Code
FIPS state codes were numeric and two-letter alphabetic codes defined in U.S. Federal Information Processing Standard Publication ("FIPS PUB") 5-2 to identify U.S. states and certain other associated areas. The standard superseded FIPS PUB 5-1 on May 28, 1987, and was superseded on September 2, 2008, by ANSI standard INCITS 38:2009.
The codes are used in Geographic Names Information System, overseen by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names. The codes were assigned by NIST and each uniquely identified a state, the District of Columbia, or an outlying area of the U.S.. These codes were used by the U.S. Census Bureau, the Department of Agriculture to form milk-processing plant numbers, some cash registers during check approval, and in the Emergency Alert System (EAS).
The FCC assigned additional numeric codes used with the EAS for territorial waters of the U.S., but these were not part of the FIPS standard.
The FIPS state alpha code for each U.S. states and the District of Columbia were identical to the postal abbreviations by the United States Postal Service. From September 3, 1987, the same was true of the alpha code for each of the outlying areas, with the exception of U.S. Minor Outlying Islands (UM) as the USPS routes mail for these islands indirectly.
Each of the various minor outlying islands that fell within alpha code UM had an individual numeric code, but no individual alpha code.
On September 2, 2008, FIPS 5-2 was one of ten standards withdrawn by NIST as a Federal Information Processing Standard.
Read more about Federal Information Processing Standard State Code: FIPS State Codes, Supplemental Codes For Maritime Areas
Famous quotes containing the words federal, information, standard, state and/or code:
“If the federal government had been around when the Creator was putting His hand to this state, Indiana wouldn’t be here. It’d still be waiting for an environmental impact statement.”
—Ronald Reagan (b. 1911)
“The family circle has widened. The worldpool of information fathered by the electric media—movies, Telstar, flight—far surpasses any possible influence mom and dad can now bring to bear. Character no longer is shaped by only two earnest, fumbling experts. Now all the world’s a sage.”
—Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980)
“Society’s double behavioral standard for women and for men is, in fact, a more effective deterrent than economic discrimination because it is more insidious, less tangible. Economic disadvantages involve ascertainable amounts, but the very nature of societal value judgments makes them harder to define, their effects harder to relate.”
—Anne Tucker (b. 1945)
“I thought that a Jewish state would be free of the evils afflicting other societies: theft, murder, prostitution.... But now we have them all. And that’s a thing that cuts to the heart ...”
—Golda Meir (1898–1978)
“Hollywood keeps before its child audiences a string of glorified young heroes, everyone of whom is an unhesitating and violent Anarchist. His one answer to everything that annoys him or disparages his country or his parents or his young lady or his personal code of manly conduct is to give the offender a “sock” in the jaw.... My observation leads me to believe that it is not the virtuous people who are good at socking jaws.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)