# Try the address your autocomplete refuses to find

Address tests should cover manual entry, partial matches and downstream truncation. A list of familiar suburban houses leaves important failures untouched.

By Cobnex editorial. Published 2026-09-10. Updated 2026-09-11.

## Build cases around the information that can disappear

Use synthetic records covering a unit with a letter, a street-number range, a leading-zero postcode, a PO Box and a physical site with separate access instructions. Include an address absent from the test lookup dataset.

For each case, define the expected purpose. A PO Box may pass a postal-contact flow and fail a physical-service-location requirement with a clear explanation. That is different from rejecting it everywhere as invalid.

Check the stored record as well as the visible label. A screen can preserve formatting while an API converts the postcode to a number.

## Break the lookup without breaking entry

Return no candidates, delay responses and make an older query finish after a newer one. The form must not replace a user's latest input with stale suggestions.

Disconnect the lookup service and use manual entry. Confirm that the record retains an honest match state. It must not inherit a previous customer's match identifier or display Verified because the component once held a valid selection.

Select a candidate, then edit the unit or street. Verify which changes invalidate the match and that the behaviour follows the provider's granularity. A building-level match may not establish the existence of an individual unit.

## Follow the address into its actual output

Generate the carrier request, service job, PDF label and CSV export used by the application. Inspect the longest supported components and all optional lines.

An illustrative defect is a label adapter that drops line two when the organisation name is present. Ordinary house-address tests pass, while unit deliveries fail. A fixture containing both fields makes the problem visible.

Round-trip the export through the supported import path. Confirm that leading zeroes and component boundaries remain intact rather than assuming spreadsheet display is equivalent to stored data.

## Test correction after a job exists

Create a future service visit and a completed shipment, then change the customer's postal address. The application should update only the intended relationships under its documented policy.

Record the before and after destinations and the actor who confirmed the change. A passing test proves that correcting one address role cannot silently move unrelated work.

## Sources

- [Australia Post: addressing guidelines](https://auspost.com.au/personal/sending/sending-guidelines/addressing-guidelines)
- [Australia Post Developers: address guidance](https://developers.auspost.com.au/content/apis/shipping-and-tracking/info/api-resources/addresses.html)