"CA" as abbreviation for Canada

Relatively often, given that “CA” is the official ISO 3166-1 (alpha-2) code for Canada, and is also the official TLD for Canada (.ca).

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:slight_smile: Yeah, I am aware of the TLD and ISO codes. But isn’t the MB TLA translator supposed to be relevant to MB? How often are TLD or ISO codes being used when working in the database?

Do Canadians write their address in shorthand in that manner?

We have a neat little example here in this thread as to how (Chatsworth, CA) looks confusing to someone not from the USA. Especially as there is a Chatsworth near Ontario. Chatsworth, Ontario - Wikipedia leading to TWO (Chatsworth, CA) locations on this planet.

Just thinking out loud :wink:

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Yes. This is why the primary given “translation” of “CA” is “cover art”, but it acknowledges that it can also be either Canada or California, depending on context. The script cannot be intelligent enough to derive context to determine which of multiple possible “translations” of CA are meant.

Country ISO codes are stored directly in the database, so you can find all artists or releases from Canada from an SQL query/lookup if you know that Canada’s ISO code is “CA”.

I’m pretty sure Canadians would write that as “Chatsworth, ON” (assuming it’s in Ontario and not in one of the bordering provinces) and others would write it as “Chatsworth, Canada”. I only ever see “City, XY” used (in North American contexts) for “City, State/Province”. I’m not Canadian though, so…

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I am, and you’ve pretty much nailed it.

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Yet another time I failed to get over what I mean. Sorry, I should have waffled more. Didn’t want to take that thread OT. :smiley: Just sometimes I fail to get the correct words out.

Yes, I know what all those mean. And am aware of USAians doing two letter states. I was really just talking out loud as it shows that the TLA translator is leading to some confusions here. I wasn’t really after a tutorial on ISO codes \ TLD (one day we may meet and you’ll realise there are more brains here than you give me credit for :rofl:)

Now this thread is here I can waffle.

Not everyone is taught about the USA states. So Steve, being Australian, naturally read that rear cover as Canada. Typed it on the page and the TLA translator also said Canada to him.

When I asked how often CA was used in the database, I was meaning from the view of us dumb users. The ones of us who type in this forum and add releases through the website GUI. The ID-10T crowd who the TLA translator was created for. Those of us outside the front door who make all the noise :grin:

Doesn’t seem logical to me to add Canada to that TLA translator when other two letter ISO codes are not in that list. If only the database coders are using ISO codes then they know what they are.

For example - US UK GB FI USA CA RU FR DE NZ JP TV IS - the only one that has the TLA translator using the ISO code is CA This is what I was trying top point to that can lead to confusion. :slight_smile:

This is why I was curious if someone like @rdswift would ever chop his country to a two letter code. And I assume not.

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I can’t speak for the other millions of Canadians, only myself. From my perspective, your assumption is incorrect. I often abbreviate Canada as “CA”, and recognize CA as meaning Canada (as well as California). I am reasonably familiar with the geography of both Canada and the USA, so when someone uses the CA abbreviation, I don’t often get confused as to which context they are referring.

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I am Québécois and I can recognize .CA as either Canada or California from context.
City, State is pretty much a US thing. Although it’s seen sometimes being used for canadian cities, it’s not as common as in the US.

When we send (snail) mail in Quebec we do not abbreviate the province.

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here in Australia we abbreviate it to AU. We are known for abbreviating names tho

the reasons i went for Canada instead of California is because we know more about countrys then we do states and territories or what ever the yanks call the. if i right states and territories are kind of the same as a province

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Again, note that “CA” is not in the abbreviation list for Canada nor for California. “CA” is there for “cover art”. But if you write “Chatsworth, CA”, does it make sense for that being “Chatsworth, Cover Art”? Canada and California are both listed as alternative possible meanings of “CA” exactly so that someone who doesn’t know what “CA” is at all can get an idea of the most common possible usages of it and use the surrounding context to determine which of the three is the more likely one being meant. If you’re still not sure what the author’s intent of a given abbreviation is, you should ask them to clarify (when possible).

(Of course, there are plenty of other meanings for “CA” not covered here, since I reckon they’re not generally used/useful in MeB context, but if someone starts ranting about electricity, I hope that you can recognise that cA is centiamperes or if discussing chemistry that Ca is calcium. But neither of those topics seem relevant to MeB as this point. Maybe if we get the ElectronicsBrainz that some people have talked about… My choice of including Canada and California is that we do mention and use those in discussions, while I haven’t seen, say, Air China or Centre Alliance being talked about anywhere.)

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Sorry, tired head day, I should have run away from the forum earlier before I got into the mad confused stuff. Apologies to all who had to read my confused old rubbish. :slight_smile:

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