Regular expression to find a us postal address or cross streets

[naterockhold]

I'm trying to create a regular expression to match the following types of us locations:

 

486 S SOANGETAHA RD APT 9 GALESBURG IL

450 N CHERRY ST GALESBURG IL 61401

950 REDWOOD SHORES PKWY UNIT K102 REDWOOD CITY CA

123 MAIN ST

123 MAIN ST SAN FRANCISCO

MAIN ST & KELLOGG ST

EMBARCADERO ST & MARKET ST SAN FRANCISCO

 

These locations are in a long string with that varies in length.

 

This is the regular expression I'm using but it is also matching other strings that are not a location. 

 

$STATE="(A[KLRZ]|C[AOT]|D[CE]|FL|GA|HI|I[ADLN]|K[sY]|LA|M[ADEINOST]|N[CDEHJMVY]|O[HKR]|PA|RI|S[CD]|T[NX]|UT|V[AT]|W[AIVY])";

$STREET="(AVE|AVENUE|BLVD|BOULEVARD|CIR|CIRCLE|CT|COURT|EXPY|EXPRESSWAY|FWY|FREEWAY|LN|LANE|PKY|PKWY|PARKWAY|RD|ROAD|SQ|SQUARE|ST|STREET|TPKE|TURNPIKE)";

$DIREC="(N|NORTH|E|EAST|S|SOUTH|W|WEST|NE|NORTHEAST|SE|SOUTHEAST|SW|SOUTHWEST|NW|NORTHWEST)";

$NAME="(([A-Z]{3,15})( +([A-Z]{3,15})){0,1}( +([A-Z]{3,15})){0,1})";

$DESIG="(APARTMENT|APT|BUILDING|BLDG||FLOOR|FL|SUITE|STE|UNIT|ROOM|RM|DEPARTMENT|DEPT)";

$NUM="([0-9]{1,6})";

$APT="([A-Z0-9]{1,6})";

$ZIP="([0-9]{5})";

 

$USAddressPtn = "($NUM{0,1} *$DIREC{0,1} *$NAME{1} *$STREET{1} *$DESIG{0,1} *$APT{0,1} *$NAME{0,1} *$STATE{0,1} *$ZIP{0,1})";

 

 

[requinix]

You do realize you're asking for a nearly impossible answer, right?

 

Unless you have a database of all addresses then you cannot get a 100% accurate solution. Looking for indicators like ST/Street and LN/Lane are good but that's only a start. How many words are in the name of the street? You don't know. If you find a "IN" is that a preposition or an abbreviation? Is "HI" a greeting or a state name? What about "CIRCLE"?

Walk 100 paces south until you reach a busy street.

Step 3. Draw a three inch circle in the large square provided.