Talk:ISO 3166-1

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Featured list star ISO 3166-1 is a featured list, which means it has been identified as one of the best lists produced by the Wikipedia community. If you see a way this page can be updated or improved without compromising previous work, feel free to contribute.

Some people are removing mentions of ISO 3166-1 codes in articles like Western Sahara and Canary Islands. I think that they should be mentioned for territories with a code but no top Internet domain. What do you think? -- Error 00:42 22 May 2003 (UTC)

They have been removed from everywhere (not by me, as it happens), those two were just some leftovers that the other people cleaning them up accidently missed. I can't see any point in mentioning them at all. Who on earth would want to know that stuff? There is an entry right here on ISO 3166-1 codes (and an excellent entry it is too) but messing up perfectly good and readable articles about particular countries with a whole jumble of meaningless letters and numbers makes no sense at all. If you think it's important that they be mentioned (I have no idea why anyone would think that, but - hey - different strrokes for different folks) then there is an obvious and useful place to put them where they will be easy for anyone to find: ISO 3166-1. Tannin 01:05 22 May 2003 (UTC)

Hey Tannin, do you think you are the wisdom on earth? Or why are you talking so arrogant? Tobias Conradi

Oh, I forgot to mention: I don't think there are any left as incomprehensible intrusions into the opening line in the various countries entries now, but if there, let me know, and I'll volunteer my time to cleam them up right away. Tannin

Just curious, but why was the "DD blabla" removed? It is valid information.

ISO 3166-1:DD was asigned to the former German Democratic Republic, also known as East Germany, but is currently no longer in use.

-- EmperorBMA / ブリイアン 08:50, 21 Mar 2004 (UTC)

It was removed because it was in the wrong place. There are lots of these obsolete codes, and they listed in the ISO 3166-3 article. --Zundark 09:35, 21 Mar 2004 (UTC)
Ah I see then. ^_^;; -- EmperorBMA / ブリイアン 19:53, 21 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Converted to table

Uniform data like ISO 3166 codes ought to be in tabular form, so I converted the page to a table. Not by hand, mind you:

// File:    convert-iso3166-1.cpp
// License: Public domain
// Author:  Ardonik
#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <string>

using namespace std;

int main() {
  ifstream infile("iso3166-1.txt");
  ofstream outfile("iso3166-1.table.txt");
 
  if (infile && outfile) {
    outfile << "{| border=\"1px\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"2px\"\n";
    outfile << "|- style=\"background-color: #a0d0ff;\"\n";
    outfile << "!Numeric!!Alpha-3!!Alpha-2!!Local ISO codes!!Country\n";
    outfile << "|-\n";
   
    while (infile) {
      string line;
      getline(infile, line);
      if (line == "") break;
      string numeric = line.substr(1, 3);
      string code3 = line.substr(5, 3);
      string code2 = line.substr(9, 2);
      size_t pos = line.find("]]", 12);
      string iso_link = line.substr(12, (pos - 12) + 2);
      string country_link = line.substr(pos + 3);
      outfile << "|" << numeric << "||" << code3 << "||" << code2 << "||" 
              << iso_link << "||" << country_link << "\n";
      outfile << "|-\n";
    }
    outfile << "|}" << endl;
  } else   
    cout << "Couldn't open files?" << endl;
  return 0;
}

To use the program, you have to copy the ISO data from the old version of the page into a file called "iso3166-1.txt". Running the program will then give you the equivalent table. --Ardonik 23:18, Aug 8, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Country

I changed the column heading from coutry to coutry / region since not all the entities in the column are universally recognized countries (Taiwan, Palestinian Territories) and we shouldn't confer on them coutry status. 67.86.150.45 14:01, 17 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Merge?

Surely List of ISO country codes should be merged into this page, or vice versa? Or is there some reason to have the same information in two places? -- ALoan (Talk) 13:59, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

I concur: this article has more information, so the other should be merged into this. I have added the requisite notices. If and when I find my round tuit I might be able to do something more constructive—won't be fussed if someone else wants to do it mind ;-) HTH HAND —Phil | Talk 12:38, August 4, 2005 (UTC)
the only thing cold be, that we maintain one ENcoding table and one DEcoding table. But surely we don't need the same list twice. Tobias Conradi (Talk) 11:53, 9 August 2005 (UTC)
ok, there would be three decoding tables. so forget this. Everybody can use "search in page" to decode. Maybe for this, it is easier to have a pure list. Tobias Conradi (Talk) 11:56, 9 August 2005 (UTC)
which list would be retained ? The one in the 'List'-page is more compact; that on this page has more info; or both or -what I would prefer- a combination of both (the compact-style, with more information added)? B-t-w I'm currently adding the 3-letter acronyms to wp, if not available yet. Bart l 21:00, 25 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Bad links

This page is full of bad links. HND (Honduras), for instance, leads to Higher National Diploma and IND for India to disambig page that doesn't mention India, SqueakBox 03:48, 19 October 2005 (UTC)

  • I currently checking all the links (2 and 3-letter codes) and fixing (standardize them) the disambig pages if necessary. I'm currently at BLZ; see e.g. BEL/BE on how it's implemented (at the bottom I include the .be link too). Feel free to help too (start at the bottom for instance) !! Bart l 07:25, 19 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] WP:FLC

This is a great list - are the authors thinking of nominating it as a featured list? -- ALoan (Talk) 19:56, 19 November 2005 (UTC)

  • Let's go for it. Bart l 19:44, 20 November 2005 (UTC)
    • Promoted. -- ALoan (Talk) 11:18, 30 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Linking two and three-letter codes

Is there any point to linking the codes in the table? The codes represent the countries, which are already linked from their names. Clicking the link yields a disambiguation page or the country page or some unrelated article. Wouldn't it be better if the codes were just regular black text instead of an irrelevant rainbow of blue and red links? Or link the code AF to ISO 3166-2:AF, instead of repeating "(ISO 3166-2)" in every row. —Michael Z. 2005-12-2 18:32 Z

I agree, linking to hundreds of dab pages is useless. I'm going to fix this if there are no objections. Josh Parris#: 05:47, 30 December 2005 (UTC)
Did it. —Michael Z. 2006-01-2 21:48 Z

[edit] Serbia and Montenegro

Somebody has put in new codes for Serbia and Montenegro to replace those for Serbia and Montenegro. No sources are cited and I cannot find these changes from the official ISO webpage [1] [2]. From the UN webpage [3], it does seem likely that Montenegro will get numerical code 499, while Serbia will get numerical code 688. I'm going to revert the changes for now until we get official changes from ISO. Chanheigeorge 18:16, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

Serbia's ISO 3166-1 Alpha-3 code is SRB while Montenegro's is CGR. You can find this on find this on the World Trade Organization's website. Here's the link to where these codes can be found http://docsonline.wto.org/help/faq/frames1/webhelp/document_nomenclature/iso_country_codes.htm -- Crna Gora 09:53, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
I don't think these are actual ISO codes. WTO doesn't use ISO exclusively (they use 708 for MKD, and TPKM for TWN), and the page has last been changed in JANUARY 2005 (!!). I strongly suggest we wait for official confirmation by ISO. —Nightstallion (?) 17:57, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
According to an article at B92, Montenegro has been given an ISO code. It appears ISO has approved MNE as the three-letter code and ME as the two-letter code. In saying that, I made have found what Serbia's two-letter code could be. Another article from B92 seems to state that RS and SRB have been endorsed by the Gov. as the codes Serbia prefers. If all of this ends up to be so, I have the code ready for the table, which renders thus:
table removed. - see sandbox.
(The numbers are from this UN list.)
Once ISO gives the word, this article should be edited, not before. - Thanks, Hoshie 09:20, 25 August 2006 (UTC)
It now appears that Serbia has accepted SP instead of RS for it's two-letter code; see B92. - Thanks, Hoshie 23:13, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Table colours

In my browser (IE 6) the colours in the table "Map of alpha-2 codes reserved or assigned to countries or territories" don't work. Everything below "Colour legend" is completely black... looks like black text on a black background, but when I select the text (drag the mouse over it) I can see there's some text there. The legend suggests that there are seven different colours in the main table, but for me only two are distinguishable (or three at a real strain). Also, the unused codes stand out prominently (white on black) while the unused ones are de-emphasised (blue on a slightly darker blue), which is the wrong way round (the used codes should stand out). Something's gone screwy here.

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