New ccaatt list

Last month, the Department of Provincial Administration issued a new version of the geocodes based on the TIS 1099 standard - or actually other way round, the list on which the TIS 1099 standard was based. This time they changed to publish Excel sheets instead of plain text files, making it a bit easier for normal users to use these lists, but for me to look for the changes it adds a little extra work to convert to the old format. Sadly, the meta data or version history of the Excel files don't show any internal information on the way these lists are compiled...

As there was just one administrative change for the central administrative units - the reassign of Tha Faek subdistrict in Uttaradit province - there is just one new code in the ccaatt list and the new code is no surprise.

• Tha Faek subdistrict (ตำบลท่าแฝก) received the code 530407

Sadly, the planned new districts in Yala did not receive a code yet with this update, so if they become official before another update of this list I have a 50% chance of guessing the right codes to use in my XML file for Yala - in fact I have already made my guess as I prepared the two entries, so if anyone from DOPA is reading - please choose 9509 for Lam Mai and 9510 for Kota Baru.

A few more changes are in the rcode list which contains all the registration offices and thus both district and municipalities. While the districts are of course the same as in the ccaatt list, this time nine municipalities received a new four digit code.

• Kok Ko (เทศบาลตำบลกกโก), Lopburi: 1681
• Hua Na (เทศบาลตำบลหัวนา), Ubon Ratchathani: 3465
• Ban Thum (เทศบาลเมืองบ้านทุ่ม), Khon Kaen: 4057
• Mae Lan Na (เทศบาลตำบลแม่ลานนา), Phrae: 5482
• Pang Makha (เทศบาลเมืองปางมะค่า), Kamphaeng Phet: 6278
• Aranyik (เทศบาลเมืองอรัญญิก), Phitsanulok: 6580
• Na Saton (เทศบาลตำบลหน้าสตน), Nakhon Si Thammarat: 8070
• Khok Muang (เทศบาลตำบลโคกม่วง), Songkhla: 9067
• Khao Hua Chang (เทศบาลตำบลเขาหัวช้าง), Phatthalung: 9382

There are still a lot of municipalities which did not receive a four digit code yet - and it is simply impossible that all can receive such a code as there are provinces which have more districts and municipalities than fit into the 99 possible codes. Thus to assign a unique code to every municipality the code scheme has to be changed.

The code 1681 was in past ccaatt lists used with the name "อ.บ้านเช่า จ.ลพบุรี" (Ban Chao district, Lopburi province), but marked as obsolete. It is both a strange code for a district, as well I am not aware of any district with that name ever planned in Lopburi. Interestingly, the district Ban Mi was named Ban Sao (บ้านเซ่า) from 1917 till 1939, so it might even be a misspelled obsolete geocode entry. But now it has been overwritten by Kok Ko.