Countries Without Postal Codes

Some countries do not have postal code systems. When shipping to these destinations or validating addresses, you may need to detect this and provide a fallback value.

Checking Postal Code Support

Use the Country helper to check if a country uses postal codes:

use Cline\PostalCode\Support\Country;

// Countries with postal codes
Country::hasPostalCode('US'); // true
Country::hasPostalCode('GB'); // true
Country::hasPostalCode('DE'); // true

// Countries without postal codes
Country::hasPostalCode('HK'); // false (Hong Kong)
Country::hasPostalCode('AE'); // false (United Arab Emirates)
Country::hasPostalCode('QA'); // false (Qatar)

The method is case-insensitive:

Country::hasPostalCode('hk'); // false
Country::hasPostalCode('Hk'); // false

Fallback Value

When a country doesn’t use postal codes but your system requires one (e.g., for shipping carriers), use the fallback:

use Cline\PostalCode\Support\Country;

$postalCode = Country::hasPostalCode($countryCode)
    ? $userProvidedPostalCode
    : Country::fallbackPostalCode(); // Returns '00000'

Practical Example

Here’s how to normalize postal codes in a shipping application:

use Cline\PostalCode\Facades\PostalCode;
use Cline\PostalCode\Support\Country;

function normalizePostalCode(string $postalCode, string $countryCode): string
{
    // Countries without postal codes get the fallback
    if (!Country::hasPostalCode($countryCode)) {
        return Country::fallbackPostalCode();
    }

    // Format valid postal codes, return original if invalid
    return PostalCode::for($postalCode, $countryCode)->formatOr($postalCode);
}

// Usage
normalizePostalCode('90210', 'US');      // '90210'
normalizePostalCode('WC2E9RZ', 'GB');    // 'WC2E 9RZ'
normalizePostalCode('anything', 'HK');   // '00000'
normalizePostalCode('anything', 'QA');   // '00000'

Complete List

Get all countries without postal code systems:

use Cline\PostalCode\Support\Country;

$countries = Country::countriesWithoutPostalCodes();
// ['AE', 'AG', 'AN', 'AO', 'AW', 'BF', 'BI', ...]

Countries Without Postal Codes

Code	Country
AE	United Arab Emirates
AG	Antigua and Barbuda
AN	Netherlands Antilles (former)
AO	Angola
AW	Aruba
BF	Burkina Faso
BI	Burundi
BJ	Benin
BO	Bolivia
BS	Bahamas
BW	Botswana
BZ	Belize
CD	Democratic Republic of the Congo
CF	Central African Republic
CG	Republic of the Congo
CI	Ivory Coast
CK	Cook Islands
CM	Cameroon
CW	Curacao
DJ	Djibouti
DM	Dominica
ER	Eritrea
FJ	Fiji
GA	Gabon
GD	Grenada
GH	Ghana
GM	Gambia
GQ	Equatorial Guinea
GY	Guyana
HK	Hong Kong
JM	Jamaica
KI	Kiribati
KM	Comoros
KN	Saint Kitts and Nevis
KP	North Korea
ML	Mali
MO	Macau
MR	Mauritania
MW	Malawi
NR	Nauru
NU	Niue
QA	Qatar
RW	Rwanda
SB	Solomon Islands
SC	Seychelles
SL	Sierra Leone
SO	Somalia
SR	Suriname
SS	South Sudan
ST	Sao Tome and Principe
SX	Sint Maarten
SY	Syria
TD	Chad
TG	Togo
TK	Tokelau
TL	Timor-Leste
TO	Tonga
TV	Tuvalu
UG	Uganda
VU	Vanuatu
YE	Yemen
ZW	Zimbabwe