The Pokémon TCG has certain elements to it that aren’t clearly standardized. This document aims to resolve these issues by providing clear guidelines on how to structure and represent various kinds of data. Also see card database inconsistencies.

TCG region

The Pokémon TCG has different versions based on its geographic location. The available TCG regions are:

• International
• Japan

Expansion

Code

An expansion code is a small piece of text that (not always uniquely) identifies an expansion. For older expansions, the code isn’t often shown or referred to, but can be easily found on various Pokémon TCG sources. The expansion code is often shown as the expansion symbol itself.

Card

A card can be uniquely identified in multiple ways:

1. Full name.
2. Expansion and number sorting order.
3. Name, expansion, and number (or number sorting order).

Name

The card name is the text found at the top left of a card. It excludes any other information such as the Pokémon stage. The official Pokémon TCG checklists can be used as a reference. All cards have a name.

Full name

The full name uniquely identifies a card. It has the following format: <name> (<expansion name> <surrogate number>) (<tcg region>). Examples are:

• Pikachu (Base Set 58/102) (International)
• Bulbasaur (Expansion Pack No. 001) (Japan)

Number