Parse Address

[Michael C#]

Hi all,

I'm about to start writing a routine to parse "standard" U.S. Addresses (if
there is such a thing...) Before I jump off into this, I was just wondering
if maybe someone out there had already seen some similar logic already
implemented somewhere? Here's basically what I'm trying to do:

123 Sesame Street NW

In this example, I want to parse out the Street Address as follows:

123 = House Number
Sesame = Street Name
Street = Street Type
NW = Street Directional

I know there are a lot more variations than this in addresses, which is why
this is so much fun right? So if anyone knows of any type of address
parsing mechanism already done out there, it'd be much appreciated.

Thx,
Mike C.

 

[Gerald Hernandez]

There are quite a number of these already out there. However, all that I can
think of at the moment are integrated into full geo-coding applications,
which can be quite pricey depending upon your needs.

What type of addresses are you looking to parse?
Meaning USPS mailing addresses or Physical street addresses?
Why you ask? Well, on the surface you would think they are the same thing.
However, in reality they can be quite different.
Do you need to support building and or units? Such as "123 B1 Sesame Street
NW".
Do you need the standardized or just parsed? "123 Sesame ST NW". Or "123
North Main Street East" = "123 N Main ST E"
Do you need to parse addresses for the far north US, where they might use
Canadian style Alphanumeric addresses?
How discrete are your addresses? Meaning how many different fields are
discrete, such as Street Number, Street Name, City, State, Zipcode. Just how
many fields need to be constructed?

As you can guess, what might seem trivial at first can become quite
complicated.
I have an extensive set of address management utilities. I am currently
polishing off version 3 of a framework that is used extensively in utility
companies. However, it is written in VB6 and has some other unique
dependencies. What I have might not be a fit for you. Not that I am
necessarily pitching my product. There might be a much better match out
there depending upon your needs.

Gerald

 

[Michael C#]

Thanks Gerald. I'll e-mail you directly.

Thanks,
Mike C.