Talk:ISO 3166-1 alpha-2

message: Someone should add this  in? --Kaihsu 08:52, 5 Aug 2003 (UTC)
thread_title: Prologue

message: I've been converting a few of these massive ISO articles recently.  Here's the program I used to convert this article:

// File:    convert-iso3166-alpha-2.cpp
// License: Public domain
// Author:  Ardonik
#include <fstream>
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;
void generate(istream& in, ostream& out) {
  out << "{| border=\"1px\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"2px\"\n";
  out << "|+ (Description) Two-letter Codes\n";
  out << "|- style=\"background-color: #a0d0ff;\"\n";
  out << "!Alpha-2!!Country\n";
  out << "|-\n";
  string line;
  while (getline(in, line)) {
    if (line.length() < 16) continue;
    string alpha2 = line.substr(2, 11);
    string country = line.substr(16);
    out << "|" << alpha2 << "||" << country << "\n";
    out << "|-\n";
  }
  out << "|}\n";
  if (in.fail() && !in.eof()) cout << "Could not read from input\n";
  if (out.fail()) cout << "Could not write to output\n";  
}
int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {
  if (argc != 3) {
    cout << "Usage: " << argv[0] << " [infile] [outfile]\n";
    cout << "  If infile is \"-\", input will be read from stdin.\n";
    cout << "  If outfile is \"-\", output will be written to stdout.\n";
    return 0;
  }
  string infile = argv[1], outfile = argv[2];
  if (infile == "-" && outfile == "-") {
    generate(cin, cout);
  } else if (infile == "-") {
    ofstream out(outfile.c_str());
    generate(cin, out);
  } else if (outfile == "-") {
    ifstream in(infile.c_str());    
    generate(in, cout);
  } else {
    ifstream in(infile.c_str());    
    ofstream out(outfile.c_str());    
    generate(in, out);
  }
  return 0;
}

To use it, simply copy a bulleted list from the old version of the page into a text file and run the program with the text file as the first argument and "-" as the second.  Copy the resulting output and replace the old list with it.
The program's bigger than it ought to be, but I only had to run it once.  --Ardonik 01:36, Aug 10, 2004 (UTC)
Ok Surajkm.mishra121 (talk) 11:04, 12 April 2018 (UTC)
thread_title: Table conversion

message: User:Millosh already added "SP" for Serbia in the table in the article, contradicting the footnote about Serbia and Montenegro.  This "SP" is at best a guess, at this stage. I have manually reverted. If Millosh has insider information, please provide the reference. – Kaihsu 22:04, 2 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I now see Serbian country codes.  Self-reverting. – Kaihsu 22:09, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

text: For Serbia it is ISO suggestion to Serbian government. So, speaking strictly, it shouldn't be inside of the article. But, Montenegro got even .ME root domain based on two letter code. --millosh (talk (sr:)) 14:46, 3 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: There are two links in Serbian:  (about .ME) and  (about SP/SRB). In short, government of Montenegro gave control of .ME domain to some governmental institution. For Serbia it is more complex. Serbian authorities suggested RS for two letters code and SRB for three letters code. While ISO agreed with SRB, ISO suggested SP for two letters code. And it is just a metter of time when ISO suggestion would be accepted/implemented. --millosh (talk (sr:)) 14:51, 3 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks for the info. It looks like ME for Montenegro is basically a done deal, while Serbia's alpha-2 code is still to be decided. I guess this holds up the whole process. ISO has to do these three things at the same time: withdraw Serbia and Montenegro's codes, release Montenegro's codes, and release Serbia's codes. Right now ISO is only ready to do the first two, and doing the first two (or either of the first two) without doing the third makes no sense. Hence, the wait.... Chanheigeorge 22:57, 3 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: SP for Serbia

message: Does Kosovo have a code yet?  I've seen people using "KS" for it.
Ptomblin (talk) 03:46, 1 January 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: I am seeing KV. – Kaihsu (talk) 10:24, 9 May 2018 (UTC)
replies: text:  Where? It's not assigned by ISO. Lonaowna (talk) 11:19, 9 May 2018 (UTC)
thread_title: Kosovo

message: I am wondering why the French name for Ivory Coast is in the English language [Country name] column and then there is a English language comment in the [Notes] section that is used to describe the typical rational for the naming.  If Côte d'Ivoire is in English then the note is superfluous as it already matches the [CI] code. If it is in French then I think the terms should swap places to be consistent with the rest of the table. Idyllic press (talk) 06:30, 21 May 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: The first column lists the English name according to the ISO 3166-1 standard. ISO has chosen to use Côte d'Ivoire as the English name (even though it's French), so we have no choice but to list that. The Notes column just points out the usual English name. (As for why ISO uses the French name in English, this is because it generally follows the preferences of the governments concerned. Burma being listed as Myanmar is another example of this.) --Zundark (talk) 12:09, 21 May 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Ivory Coast

message: Hello all,
On December 15 the ISO 3166/MA deleted the Netherlands Antilles and added codes for Curacao and Sint Maarten. They also lumped Bonaire, Saba, and Sint Eustatius as "Bonaire, Saint Eustatius and Saba" (for details, see ). The ISO's decoding table shows these new codes and it also shows AN as "transitionally reserved". (see here). With the choice of BQ for the other three islands, it seems that ISO has recycled the code that used to be assigned to the British Antarctic Territory until the late 70's (for details, see: ). I have updated the article to reflect all of this. Hope this helps. - Thanks, Hoshie 06:26, 18 December 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Good job, thanks. Anomie⚔ 04:41, 19 December 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Netherlands Antilles 

message: The Vatican City (= a state) is not the territory of the Holy See (= not a state at all). The later is a different entity of international law. --217.247.106.112 (talk) 19:21, 27 December 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: And yet the ISO 3166/MA lists it anyway. It is not the purpose of this article to editorialize on the standard's choice of entities to list or the names it gives them. We just report on what the standard actually says. Anomie⚔ 20:41, 27 December 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Vatican City 

message: I was just doing a little work on the ISO 2 article...  I noticed that Iso2 directs to this article, presumably because it defines two-letter ISO country codes.  Would there be any objection to changing the redirect to point to the ISO 2 standard, which much more closely matches that as a possible search term?  If this part of ISO 3166 is widely referred to as "ISO2", I certainly would not be against adding a "For two-letter ISO country codes, see ISO 3166-1 alpha-2" at the top of the ISO 2 article.  Thoughts?  --Dfred (talk) 23:19, 13 May 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: I think your suggestion is good. There are no links that currently use the Iso2 redirect anyway. Thanks. Chanheigeorge (talk) 03:32, 16 May 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Done.  --Dfred (talk) 17:58, 17 May 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: I found this article today (and have found it the same way a couple of earlier times) by googling 'ISO 2', knowing that I needed the 2-letter ISO codes. The only reason I looked at this talk page is because I was wondering about the country name listed for Taiwan. So I am one of the users that enjoys that looking for 'iso 2' brings me here (and google still does). Never the less, I'd suspect a link 'for the country codes, look here' would work fine. Unilynx (talk) 20:10, 8 July 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  ISO2 redirects here rather than [[ISO 2]] 

message: Why isn't Austria's (ie. Österreich=Oesterreich) ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code OE?
I am aware that AT/AUT come from French "Autriche", since AU/AUS were already assigned to Australia, but if the UN assigned names based on their English or French names, then why isn't Germany's ISO3166 abbreviation GE/GER or AL or AM (from French Allemagne)? Germany received an abbreviation in its own language, but Austria didn't.
Many more countries have ISO 3166 codes based on their language, e.g. Spain - ES/ESP, Estonia - EE/EST, or Iceland - IS/ISL to name just a few. These ISO codes were created from the names of the countries as they appear in original language, not in English or French.
The oddity is that many people using these abbreviations daily find them counter-intuitive -- the AT/AUT ISO code is an acquired use rather than intuitive. 
Of course, that applies to many other countries as well (for those that use the Latin alphabet).
Did anyone ask a country's native before assigning codes? Can the codes change or are they pretty much set in stone?  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.153.194.14 (talk) 00:08, 7 February 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: This is not the place for general questions about the standard; most likely no one here has any connection with the ISO 3166/MA, so your guess is likely as good as ours. You'd do better to check the ISO's FAQ and/or contact them directly with your questions. Anomie⚔ 03:14, 7 February 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Why not OE for Austria? 

message: Does anyone here know/could anyone explain why the article states the code 'EH' for Western Sahara comes from the Spanish name 'Sahara Español'? Given the order in which those letters appear in the words (SaHara Español) it looks entirely arbitrary - it might just as well come from 'WEstern SaHara'. It's not like, for example, DEutschland or ESpaña. I realise asking here is extremely far-fetched, but I haven't so far managed to find a source that explains this. Even the ISO site simply states the code without any reference to its origin. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.151.83.54 (talk) 
:I think EH is just a contraction of the alpha-3 code ESH. And ESH (instead of SES or SHE, for example) can perhaps be explained as combining ES for Español and SH for Sahara. --Zundark (talk) 15:47, 4 July 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: That does make sense, actually. Thank you! The Bloody Cat (talk) 16:23, 4 July 2013 (UTC)

text: Probably EH was chosen because more obvious codes were already taken: SE for Sahara Español is assigned to Sweden; its reverse ES stands for Spain; WS for Western Sahara wasn't possible because of Samoa. Apparently they eventually chose EH as Western Sahara's two-letter code. SiBr4 (talk) 16:20, 4 July 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  EH - Western Sahara 

message: At the ISO website  the status of EZ and UN code is "Exceptionally reserved" not "	Unassigned" Tennegi (talk) 14:42, 14 March 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  EZ and UN code status 

message: Reference 17 doesn't seem to work anymore. Anyone know how to fix this?  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2.28.75.60 (talk) 20:37, 4 May 2014 (UTC)
replies: text: The referenced document doesn't appear to be on the ISO site anymore, though there is a copy at . I don't know whether docstoc.com is a reliable site we could replace the reference link with. SiBr4 (talk) 21:36, 4 May 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Reference 17 

message: , thanks for making some research, notes and correcting my mistake. In the first place I just changed status for SF, since it was only listed in the table for transitionally reserved codes. I have tried to search for some more information about it. I found some interesting facts, e.g. that it was indetermined reserved, but I can't find anything about the change from transitionally reserved, so I have written an e-mail to the customer service at ISO. Let's see if they will provide an answer. /PatrikN (talk) 21:52, 23 November 2016 (UTC)
replies: text: And thank you for doing even more research! Anomie⚔ 22:49, 23 November 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  SF status 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified 5 external links on ISO 3166-1 alpha-2. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
*Corrected formatting/usage for http://www.iso.org/iso/country_codes/iso_3166-faqs/iso_3166_faqs_general.htm
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20090301051718/http://www.swift.com/biconline/index.cfm?fuseaction=display_aboutbic to http://www.swift.com/biconline/index.cfm?fuseaction=display_aboutbic
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20100102222442/http://www.swift.com/solutions/messaging/information_products/bic_downloads_documents/pdfs/IBAN_Registry.pdf to http://www.swift.com/solutions/messaging/information_products/bic_downloads_documents/pdfs/IBAN_Registry.pdf
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20131101223646/http://www.swift.com/dsp/resources/documents/IBAN_Registry.pdf to http://www.swift.com/dsp/resources/documents/IBAN_Registry.pdf
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20150721184347/http://www.iso.org/iso/home/standards/country_codes/country_names_and_code_elements_txt-temp.htm to http://www.iso.org/iso/home/standards/country_codes/country_names_and_code_elements_txt-temp.htm
When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.
Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 08:54, 3 September 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified 

message: The article contains "Furthermore, the code element  is designated as an escape code if the number of regular user-assigned code elements is not sufficient." 85.180.125.5 (talk) 13:51, 16 August 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  OO 

message: Could somebody clarify the exact definition of what EA is. The description of why it was assigned, suggests it should include everything within the EU, but outside the EU customs territory. But then its geographic description includes only Ceuta and Melilla, when based on the apparent reason it was assigned, you would expect it to also include the Canary Islands, Azores, etc. etc. - 2A01:4B00:86ED:7D00:5937:19CD:73D3:997E (talk) 22:41, 27 October 2018 (UTC)
replies: text: The exact definition in ISO 3166 is "Ceuta, Melilla" (i.e. Spain's two autonomous cities), and the code's status is "exceptionally reserved." See https://www.iso.org/obp/ui/#iso:code:3166:EA for further details. Officially assigned codes for those autonomous cities are ES-CE and ES-ML, cf. ISO 3166-2:ES. Love —LiliCharlie (talk) 23:07, 27 October 2018 (UTC)

text: P.S.: If you think the Azores are (or ever were) Spanish you'd better not travel Portugal or Spain. And if you think almost all of South America is Spanish speaking, don't go there either. Love —LiliCharlie (talk) 23:52, 27 October 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  EA 

message: Oops, sorry about that; thanks for catching it. 209.209.238.189 (talk) 02:36, 28 February 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  double anchor for OO 

message: I was trying to figure out why the colours in the table for the Officially assigned: formerly assigned to a different entity and the Unassigned: free for assignment were the same.  It made it impossible to determine the difference in the table without mousing over to see if there was a link for the letters or not.
I suggest that using some contemporary colour vision deficiency theory it might be possible without causing any fuss or bother to other users to separate the colours slightly more.
I later noticed when looking at my monitor at a rather oblique angle that AI does look a little different from AH but does not make one think of BI when comparing the colours.
It would make sense to have the two Officially assigned colours almost the same as they carry a similar meaning in practice.
Idyllic press (talk) 07:08, 17 April 2019 (UTC)
replies: text: Every once in a while someone comes along and changes the colors to be "better" (in their opinion), e.g. Special:Diff/886151593 and Special:Diff/838901451 and Special:Diff/792319609/795136589. It would be nice to choose a set of colors that's specifically chosen to work well for people with all types of color blindness. Do you have a recommendation? Anomie⚔ 11:30, 17 April 2019 (UTC)
replies: text:  Maybe following this accessibility table: Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Accessibility/Colors ? – The Grid (talk)  16:21, 10 May 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  Accessibility for colour vision deficiency 

message: The problem with , , is that when one needs to subst ISO codes in place of country names, one needs to subst twice (the first subst replaces  with #invoked for the Lua module, and on the 2nd subst the module often times out half way through, if the list of countries to subst is long (say, over 100). Perhaps you can suggest a better solution to this. Cheers. Guarapiranga (talk) 01:10, 1 November 2019 (UTC)
replies: text: The solution isn't to clog this article with 13K of . Why are you trying to subst 100 country names to ISO codes in the first place, instead of just typing the much shorter codes? Anomie⚔ 01:16, 1 November 2019 (UTC)
replies: text: Bc I didn't type out the long names to start with. With the ISO codes as unique identifiers we can cross-reference figures in specific pages to ensure they're in sync with the same info. There are a bunch of pages stating population figures, for instance, all contradicting each other. Guarapiranga (talk) 01:34, 1 November 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  Markup 

message: Where does the "w" comes from in Guinea-Bissau's two letter code? Corypight (talk) 10:57, 14 February 2021 (UTC)
replies: text: I was unable to find a source. But my guess would be that it comes from the name in Fula (Gine-Bisaawo) and/or Mandinka (Gine-Bisawo) in combination with the fact that GB, GU, GI, GN, and even BG are already used for other countries. Anomie⚔ 14:49, 14 February 2021 (UTC)
replies: text: List of Internet top-level domains explains that GW comes from "Guinea, West Africa". August-54 (talk) 05:23, 17 February 2021 (UTC)
replies: text:  Not anymore, apparently. Corypight changed it with no source. But the "Guinea, West Africa" was added with no source in 2019, so 🤷. I also note that Guinea is right next to Guinea-Bissau in "West Africa". Anomie⚔ 13:09, 17 February 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  GW 

message: Reference 13 claims it's a "ISO 3166-1 decoding table", but is a generic link to the ISO Online Browsing Platform (no subdocument linked or referenced). Does anyone have a better link? 141.135.100.90 (talk) 10:34, 2 March 2021 (UTC)
replies: text: It used to link to a page that ISO removed in 2013 or 2014; someone "fixed" the dead link in Special:Diff/688555200 without correcting the title. The last archived version may be seen at https://web.archive.org/web/20130921132206/http://www.iso.org/iso/iso-3166-1_decoding_table, although the table itself seems to not have been updated from an earlier version where the "not used" color was still used. In theory you could use the information in the online browsing platform to create the table. Anomie⚔ 13:22, 2 March 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Table reference 

message: Why are there diacritics in the ISO names of Åland Islands, Saint Barthélemy, Côte d'Ivoire, Curaçao, and Réunion, but not in São Tomé and Príncipe? August-54 (talk) 18:31, 19 March 2021 (UTC)
replies: text: Odd... São Tomé and Príncipe gets to have its diacritics in the local short name but not the English short/full name. Ultimately a question for some subcommittee of the ISO. DRMcCreedy (talk) 21:16, 19 March 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Diacritics 

message: The countries that use their full names in the UN are designated as such also by the ISO. It can be divided into two categories:
Category 1 – Four countries that are alphabetized under their short names in the UN General Assembly despite the use of long names
UN designation                  	ISO designation                   	Common name
Plurinational State of Bolivia  	Bolivia (Plurinational State of)  	Bolivia
Islamic Republic of Iran        	Iran (Islamic Republic of)        	Iran
Federated States of Micronesia  	Micronesia (Federated States of)  	Federated States of Micronesia(abbreviated to FS Micronesia or FSM)
Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela	Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of)	Venezuela
Category 2 – Five (previously six) countries that are alphabetized out of order (i.e. under their long names) in the UN General Assembly
UN designation                                                                                                                  	ISO designation                           	Common name
Democratic People's Republic of Korea                                                                                           	Korea (Democratic People's Republic of)   	North Korea
Democratic Republic of the Congo                                                                                                	Congo, Democratic Republic of the         	Democratic Republic of the Congo(abbreviated to DR Congo or DRC)or sometimes Congo-Kinshasa
Republic of Korea                                                                                                               	Korea, Republic of                        	South Korea
Republic of Moldova                                                                                                             	Moldova, Republic of                      	Moldova
The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (until February 2019,prior to the Prespa agreement and name change to North Macedonia)	Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of	Macedonia (WP article was under"Republic of Macedonia" before Prespa)
United Republic of Tanzania                                                                                                     	Tanzania, United Republic of              	Tanzania
This seems to be regular in that in the case of countries alphabetized according to the short name in the UN, a part of the formal name is in parentheses, and a comma is used for those which are alphabetized according to the long, formal name. North Korea is an odd case though. Why are parentheses used instead of a comma in North Korea's ISO name? August-54 (talk) 12:42, 22 March 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Short name (title case) 

message: Several places are described, seemingly colloquially, as “belongs to”. 
BV: “ Belongs to Norway”
CC, CX, HM, NF: “Belongs to Australia”
At least some of these could better be described as “External territory of Australia”. Does this column belong to wikipedia, or to ISO 3166? I.e., may I change it? JDAWiseman (talk) 16:15, 9 July 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: The "Notes" column is for Wikipedia's own notes. So, yes, you're free to make changes to it. --Zundark (talk) 19:02, 9 July 2023 (UTC)
replies: text:  Done. JDAWiseman (talk) 22:07, 9 July 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  “belongs to”