[texhax] macro help

[Karl Berry]

    see.  Can anyone suggest what this error is telling me?

\tracingall or \loggingall will show you the expansions so you can see
where the \the is coming from.

    could translate STREET1 into \STREETONE or \STREETA, and I wonder if

In addition to the answers already given, there's something brute-force
like this:

\def\STREETistring{STREET1}
\def\STREETiistring{STREET2}
%
\ifx\yourtag\STREETistring
  ... use \streeti, or whatever ...
\else\ifx\yourtag\STREETiistring
  ... use \streetii, or whatever ...
\fi\fi

May be a useless suggestion, depending on your situation (which I wasn't
entirely clear on).  Ignore if so :).

Best,
Karl