How to normalize city and country names in excel for geocoding apis
- Step 1Export the address columns to CSV — In Excel: File → Save As → CSV UTF-8. The Case Normalizer redirects to the CSV Case Converter, which reads CSV. Keep
City,State,Country(and anyAddress Lineyou geocode) in the export. - Step 2Drop the CSV in and read the column checklist — The header row becomes a column checklist. Parsing is quote-aware, so a city written
Washington, D.C.inside quotes won't split into two columns. - Step 3Title-case the city/state columns — Select Title mode, tick
CityandStateonly.new york→New York,san francisco→San Francisco. Convert. - Step 4Uppercase the country-code column — Run a second pass: UPPER mode, tick
Countryonly.gb→GB,us→US. Two passes keep each column on its correct convention. - Step 5Spot-check the tricky place names — Review hyphenated towns and apostrophes before geocoding — see edge cases. The tool reports cells changed so you can confirm the pass touched what you expected.
- Step 6Geocode, then dedupe if needed — Feed the normalised CSV to your geocoder. To collapse remaining near-duplicate place spellings before geocoding, run excel-fuzzy-dedup on the city column.
Per-field case recipe for geocoding
Which mode to apply to which address field, and why.
| Field | Mode | Example | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
City | Title | new york → New York | Human-readable, joins to gazetteers that store Title Case |
State / region | Title | west yorkshire → West Yorkshire | Same as city; multi-word capitalised per word |
Country (ISO code) | UPPER | gb → GB | ISO 3166 alpha-2/alpha-3 are uppercase by convention |
Country (full name) | Title | united kingdom → United Kingdom | Use Title for spelled-out names, UPPER only for codes |
Postcode / ZIP | UPPER | sw1a 1aa → SW1A 1AA | UK postcodes are uppercase; US ZIPs are digit-only (no-op) |
Place-name behaviours to expect
How the conservative Title/Sentence rules interact with real place names.
| Place name | Mode | Result | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
stratford-upon-avon | Title | Stratford-upon-avon | Hyphen is not a token boundary |
o'brien (county/town) | Title | O'brien | Apostrophe is inside the token; only first letter capitalises |
san josé | Title | San José | Accented é preserved (save as UTF-8) |
NEW YORK | Title | New York | Down-cases then re-capitalises per word |
mcdonald (e.g. street) | Title | Mcdonald | No Mac/Mc special-casing |
Tier limits (the CSV Case Converter you reach)
CSV-family limits apply because the Excel page redirects to the CSV tool.
| Tier | Max file size | Max rows | Files at once |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | 2 MB | 500 | 2 |
| Pro | 100 MB | 100,000 | 10 |
| Pro-media | 500 MB | 500,000 | 50 |
| Developer | 500 MB | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Cookbook
Real address rows before/after, with the two-pass recipe (Title for names, UPPER for codes) geocoders prefer.
Two-pass: Title city, UPPER country code
The reliable geocode-prep recipe. First pass Title-cases the city; second pass uppercases the ISO country code. Each pass is scoped to its column.
Input (City,Country): new york,us LONDON,gb San francisco,US Pass 1 — title, City only: New York,us London,gb San Francisco,US Pass 2 — upper, Country only: New York,US London,GB San Francisco,US
Multi-word cities capitalise every word
Because Title tokenises on whitespace, each word in a multi-word city gets its first letter capitalised.
Input: salt lake city buenos aires NEW SOUTH WALES Mode: title Output: Salt Lake City Buenos Aires New South Wales
Hyphenated town — conservative capitalisation
Title mode does not treat the hyphen as a boundary, so only the first letter of the hyphenated token is capitalised. Decide whether that matches your gazetteer.
Input: stratford-upon-avon winston-salem Mode: title Output: Stratford-upon-avon Winston-salem (If you need each segment capitalised, split on '-' first.)
Accented city names survive UTF-8 round-trip
San José, Düsseldorf, and Reykjavík keep their accents when you save and re-open as CSV UTF-8.
Input: san josé düsseldorf reykjavík Mode: title Output: San José Düsseldorf Reykjavík
UK postcodes to uppercase
UK postcodes are conventionally uppercase; many geocoders match more reliably that way. US ZIPs are digit-only so UPPER is a harmless no-op.
Input (Postcode): sw1a 1aa ec1a 1bb 90210 Mode: upper, Postcode only Output: SW1A 1AA EC1A 1BB 90210
Edge cases and what actually happens
Page redirects to the CSV Case Converter
By designThe Excel Case Normalizer redirects to the CSV Case Converter. Save your address sheet as CSV UTF-8, normalise, then re-open. Output is CSV ready for batch geocoding.
Hyphenated towns keep only the first letter capitalised
Expectedstratford-upon-avon → Stratford-upon-avon under Title mode (hyphen is not a token boundary). If your reference data uses Stratford-Upon-Avon, split on the hyphen or do a targeted find/replace first.
Apostrophe names (O'Brien) capitalise only the first letter
Expectedo'brien → O'brien, not O'Brien — the apostrophe is inside the token. There is no special handling for Irish/Scottish naming. Fix the handful of affected rows manually if your geocoder is strict.
No Mac/Mc special-casing
Expectedmcdonald → Mcdonald, not McDonald. Title mode is purely first-letter-of-token; surname/place conventions aren't encoded.
Accented place names (José, Düsseldorf)
SupportedAccented Latin characters convert and round-trip correctly when you save as CSV UTF-8. Skipping UTF-8 risks José mojibake — that's an encoding issue, not a casing one.
Country full name vs ISO code
ExpectedUse Title for spelled-out names (united kingdom → United Kingdom) and UPPER only for ISO codes (gb → GB). Mixing them in one pass leaves one of them wrong.
Quoted address with internal commas
Preserved"Washington, D.C." stays a single cell — the parser is quote-aware (RFC-4180), so the internal comma won't split the column.
Header row left as-is
PreservedCity, State, Country headers are not converted, so your geocoder's column mapping keeps working. Only data rows change.
Free tier 500-row cap on a big address list
Tier limitThe CSV Case Converter caps Free at 500 rows. Large geocode batches need Pro (100,000 rows) or higher, or split the file before converting.
Locale-specific casing (Turkish, etc.)
LimitationConversion uses toUpperCase/toLowerCase, not locale-aware variants, so Turkish dotless-i place names won't follow Turkish rules. Handle those in a locale-aware script.
Frequently asked questions
Does the geocoder even care about case?
Most accept any case in the free-text query, but consistent case still matters for pre-geocode dedup, per-city request caching, and joining results back to a Title-cased gazetteer. Normalising first cuts redundant requests and join misses.
How do I convert an Excel address sheet?
The Excel Case Normalizer redirects to the CSV Case Converter. Save the sheet as CSV UTF-8, convert (Title for names, UPPER for codes), then re-open. Everything runs in your browser.
Which case should city and country use?
Title Case for City/State and spelled-out country names; UPPER for ISO country codes and UK postcodes. Run two scoped passes so each column gets the right convention.
Why didn't Stratford-upon-Avon fully capitalise?
Title mode tokenises on whitespace, not hyphens, so stratford-upon-avon → Stratford-upon-avon. Split on the hyphen first if your reference data capitalises each segment.
Will accented city names break?
No — accents are preserved as long as you save and re-open as CSV UTF-8. san josé → San José. Garbled accents mean an encoding mismatch, not a casing problem.
Can I normalise just the City column?
Yes — tick only City in the checklist. Other columns (lat/long, IDs, notes) are left untouched.
Does it dedupe duplicate city spellings?
No — it only changes case. After normalising, run excel-fuzzy-dedup to collapse near-duplicate spellings before geocoding.
Are my customer addresses uploaded anywhere?
No. The CSV Case Converter processes entirely in your browser; address PII never reaches a server before you choose to send it to the geocoder.
Does it touch the header row?
No. City, State, Country headers are preserved so your geocoder's column mapping still matches. Only data cells convert.
What about O'Brien-style apostrophe names?
Title mode capitalises only the first letter of the token: o'brien → O'brien. There's no apostrophe special-casing — fix the few affected rows manually if needed.
How many rows can I geocode-prep at once?
Free 500 rows / 2 MB; Pro 100,000 / 100 MB; Pro-media 500,000 / 500 MB; Developer unlimited. These are the CSV-family limits the tool actually enforces.
Can I uppercase the postcode column separately?
Yes — run an UPPER pass scoped to the postcode column only. UK postcodes go uppercase; numeric US ZIPs are unaffected.
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