[Ctn-crosscom] Some clarifications about the nature of ISO 3166 Version 2

[Jaap Akkerhuis]

All,

 > I noticed some errors in it and will actually send an improved version soon.

Ron Sherwood turnes my original version into a word document and improved the English. From his version I noticed that I made some typos and that I wasn;t always clear. So here is an improved version also in word & pdf.

	jaap


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Short FAQ about ISO 3166 


Q: What is the ISO 3166?
A: It is an international standard developed by ISO. ISO 3166 provides
   universally applicable coded representations of names of countries
   (both current and non- current), dependencies, and other areas of
   particular geopolitical interest, and their subdivisions.  The
   standard consists of three parts:

      ISO 3166-1 (Part 1: Country codes), 
      ISO 3166-2 (Part 2: Country subdivisions code),
      ISO 3166-3 (Part 3: Code for formerly used names of countries). 

   The edition (version) of a Part is identified by the year of
   publication. Therefore the full reference to the current (third)
   Edition of ISO 3166 Part 1 is: ISO 3166-1:2013.  The ISO codes
   only use the ASCII letters (A-Z) and numbers (0-9) and (in ISO
   3166-2 only) hyphens (-).

Q: In what form are the codes defined?
A: ISO3166-1 uses two letter codes (alpha-2), three letter codes (alpha-3) and 
   numerical codes.  ISO 3166-2 uses codes starting with an ISO
   3166 alpha-2 code followed by a hyphen and one or more letters
   or numbers ISO 3166-3 uses 4 letter codes. Often codes in ISO
   3166-3 contain  the original obsoleted (alpha-2) codes. .  The
   alpha-2 and 3 codes can have various classifications such as,
   Assigned by ISO 3166/MA, Unassigned, and Reserved in various
   ways: (Exceptionally, Transitionally, and indeterminately). For
   additional details, see also:
   <http://www.iso.org/iso/home/standards/country_codes/country_codes_glossary.htm>.
   The authoritative source for these terms is, of course, the
   Standard itself.

Q: What is the ISO list code list?
A: There isn’t just a single list. However the term is (frequently)
   used colloquially to denote the list with the Country Code
   Assignments in Section 9 of ISO 3166-1.  People tend to use the
   term “ISO Code List” imprecisely. They often use the term to
   include the Reserved Codes..  In the same way and even more
   confusing is the use of the term "the ISO 3166-2 list" while
   *not* meaning Part 2 of the ISO 3166 standard at all, but referring
   instead to the list of the (alpha-2) codes in Part 1. Furthermore,
   when term “ISO 3166-2 list” is misused in this way it isis is
   often undefined whether they mean all possible codes, both the
   Assigned and the Reserved Codes, or just the Assigned Codes).

Q: What is the purpose of all these codes anyway?
A: To paraphrase from ISO 3166-1, the codes are intended to be used
   in any application requiring the expression of current country
   names in coded form. The term "Country Names" is defined in
   definition 3.4 "name of country, dependency, or other area of
   particular geopolitical interest". That is why we often see the
   term "Countries and territories" used as a reminder that it is
   not just about countries.

Q: What has statistics to do with these codes?
A: The list of countries in ISO 3166-1 (ISO 3166 Part 1) are based
   upon (but not limited to) the list in the "Standard Country or
   Area Code for Statistical Use" of the UN.



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