formatting postcode

[shocker-z]

Hi there i was just wondering if anyone has come up with a function or able to come up with a function that will change a postcode to the following format..

NG56QN will become NG5-6
N18HV will become N1-8
NE15ES will become NE1-5
M225EX will become M22-5

Is this possible? as there are a few formats that it can be..


Regex is not my strong side but i can only see this as being the answer :)

Regards
Liam

[AndyB]

http://regexlib.com/REDetails.aspx?regexp_id=260

http://www.qwghlm.co.uk/blog/?p=761

[shocker-z]

so if i were to use the expression: ^(((([A-PR-UWYZ][0-9][0-9A-HJKS-UW]?)|([A-PR-UWYZ][A-HK-Y][0-9][0-9ABEHMNPRV-Y]?))\s{0,2}[0-9]([ABD-HJLNP-UW-Z]{2}))|(GIR\s{0,2}0AA))$

what function do i use to make it add the - inbetween? and how would i delete the last charactors after the number?

Sorry if it sounds a bit dumb but i havn't really worked with regex before..

Liam

[Daniel0]

[quote author=shocker-z link=topic=104341.msg416125#msg416125 date=1155645845]
Hi there i was just wondering if anyone has come up with a function or able to come up with a function that will change a postcode to the following format..

NG56QN will become NG5-6
N18HV will become N1-8
NE15ES will become NE1-5
M225EX will become M22-5

Is this possible? as there are a few formats that it can be..


Regex is not my strong side but i can only see this as being the answer :)

Regards
Liam
[/quote]

I don't see any logic in how the - is placed, so how should PHP automaticly be able to "figure" it out?

[effigy]

Explain the rules of what you want to achieve. As Daniel mentioned--where is the logic?

[shocker-z]

I have a system that i paste addresses into i currently have a page where i convert to CAPs and limite the length of lines and change from comma seperated to seperate line of data but i past this into a syatem that needs 1 extra line in which is the postcode with any letters and 1st 1 or 2 numbers followed by the number before the next letter
e.g.

NG56QN is NG5 6QN and what i need is NG5-6 so all the first part linked with - to the 1st number before the letters at the end as these state diffrent specific demographic locations in the UK

Does that make it clearer? or just confusing? lol

Liam

[Daniel0]

[code]<?php
$code = "NG56QN";

$length = strlen($code);
for($i=0; $i <= $length; $i++)
{
if(preg_match("/[0-9]{1,1}/",substr($code,$i,1)))
{
$split = $i+1;
break;
}
}

if(!empty($split))
{
echo substr($code,0,$split)."-".substr($code,$split,1);
}
else {
echo $code;
}
?>[/code]

This should do it if I understood it correctly.

[shocker-z]

yeah that's exacly what i want the only problem is that some addresses can be e.g. NG245YW and your script returns NG2-4 instead of NG24-5

Any idea's on how to overcome this?

Thatnks for all your input :0

Regards
Liam

[effigy]

[code]
<pre>
<?php

$tests = array(
'NG56QN',
'N18HV',
'NE15ES',
'M225EX',
);

foreach ($tests as $test) {
echo $test, ' => ';
preg_match('/^([A-Z]+)(\d+)(\d)(?!\d)/', $test, $matches);
echo $matches[1] . $matches[2] . '-' . $matches[3];
echo '<br /><br />';
}

?>
</pre>
[/code]

[Daniel0]

[quote author=shocker-z link=topic=104341.msg416239#msg416239 date=1155655622]
yeah that's exacly what i want the only problem is that some addresses can be e.g. NG245YW and your script returns NG2-4 instead of NG24-5

Any idea's on how to overcome this?

Thatnks for all your input :0

Regards
Liam
[/quote]

Weren't the - supposed to be after the first number ???

[shocker-z]

yeah sorry it is but if there are 2 numbers then it's after the second basicaly 99/100 times it is just before the last number in the string.. if that makes it easier kind of working with that insterad of after the 1st or 2nd?

Liam

[shocker-z]

Thanks effigy.. didnt see your post on my last post.. just tested it and working great! :)

SOLVED

Cheers for the help guys


Liam