Singapore Address Parser

With a little Regular Expression, we can parse almost anything follow a predefined pattern.

Singapore Address is a good example for parsing data with regular expression. The code in this article is produce by me today, feel free to use it for your purpose.

I use PHP for my parser, but it can be port to any other language which support Regular Expression.

The test suite

I have the following example, I just found it some where from Internet, but it's not important

Blk 900 SOUTH WOODLANDS DR #02-01 WOODLANDS CIVIC CENTRE, SINGAPORE 730900

With some arrangement, I have some varies of the above example:

Blk 900 SOUTH WOODLANDS DR

900 SOUTH WOODLANDS DR, SINGAPORE 730900

Blk 900 SOUTH WOODLANDS DR #02-01 WOODLANDS CIVIC CENTRE

900 SOUTH WOODLANDS DR #02-01 WOODLANDS CIVIC CENTRE, SINGAPORE

Blk 900 SOUTH WOODLANDS DR #02-01 WOODLANDS CIVIC CENTRE, SINGAPORE 730900

If anyone have other varies, please comment.

Code Snippet

OK, here is the my little parser (in PHP)

/**

 * Singapore Address Parser

 * Author: Khoi Nguyen

 * http://kafeblog.com

 * 20 May 2008

 **/
function parse_sin_address($address){
$blk="(Blk|Block )?";
$blkno="([0-9]+)\s";
$street="([^#,]+)";
$room="(#[0-9\-]+)?\s?";
$bld="([^,]+)?";
$comma=",?\s?";
$country="([A-Za-z\s]+)?\s?";
$postal="([0-9]+)?";
$re="/(".$blk.$blkno.$street.$room.$bld.$comma.$country.$postal.")$/i";
if(preg_match($re,$address,$matches)){
// remove unnecessary captured matching
array_shift($matches);
array_shift($matches);
while(trim($matches[0])==""){
array_shift($matches);
}
if(trim($matches[0])=='Blk'||trim($matches[0])=='Block')array_shift($matches);
    // Build result array

    return array(

      'number'    => $matches[0],

      'street'    => $matches[1],

      'roomno'    => isset($matches[2]) ? $matches[2] : "",

      'building'  => isset($matches[3]) ? $matches[3] : "",

      'country'   => isset($matches[4]) ? $matches[4] : "",

      'postal'    => isset($matches[5]) ? $matches[5] : ""    

    );

  }

  return false;

}

Usage

$address="Blk 900 SOUTH WOODLANDS DR #02-01 WOODLANDS CIVIC CENTRE, SINGAPORE 730900";
$detail = parse_sin_address($address);

echo "\nNumber: ", $detail['number'];

echo "\nStreet: ", $detail['street'];

echo "\nRoom: ", $detail['roomno'];

echo "\nBuilding: ", $detail['building'];

echo "\nCountry: ", $detail['country'];

echo "\nPostal: ", $detail['postal'];

You will receives:

Number: 900

Street: SOUTH WOODLANDS DR

Room: #02-01

Building: WOODLANDS CIVIC CENTRE

Country: SINGAPORE

Postal: 730900

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