A simple PHP code to standardize U.S. mailing addresses
Say you have a massive database of customers' mailing addresses. A data entry person puts an address in as "Two N Boulevard." Later, someone else searches for it using "2 North Blvd." Unfortunately, that query won't find it. This is where this handy standardization solution comes in.
This script takes a Delivery Address Line entered by a user and reformats it in conformity with the United States Postal Service's Addressing Standards as outlined in Publication 28, dated November 1997. It makes things a lot easier and neater when you search for records by address.
(By the way, standardization also improves data quality, which helps with obtaining lower bulk mailing rates.)
For example, I have a test file containing the following addresses:
335 Madison Avenue, New york, NY 10017
Eleven Fifth Avenue, Apartment Six, New York, NY 10022
334 Glory Lane, Building nineteen, Providence, Rhode Island
Thirteen Sunshine Boulevard, Cape Hatteras, North Carolina
The output is also written to a text file called Output.txt.It just looks just fine.
A few days ago, I came across an Address Standardization package. It's written in object-oriented PHP, so in order to use it for my own test data, I need to create an instance of the class and pass in each line of the address. (I'm a PHP newbie, so please feel free to critique or comment. I'd love to know how to make the code better!) Here is my initial code:
* Require the auto loader
* Use dirname(__FILE__) because "./" can be stripped by PHP's safety
* settings and __DIR__ was introduced in PHP 5.3.
require dirname(__FILE__) . '/autoload.php';
$Address = new AddressStandardizationSolution;
echo "\n ***** Standardizing a batch of addresses from a file named test.txt.\n\n";
$file = 'test.txt' or die('could not open file!');
$handle = @fopen($file, "r") or die("could not open file!");
$fp = @fopen("output.txt", "w");
//checks if the "end-of-file" (EOF) has been reached, good for looping through data of unknown length.
$line = fgets($handle,4096);
//handle $line here. fgets() function reads a single line from a file.
//Max length of a line in this case is 4096 characters. Adjust based on needs.
$result = $Address->AddressLineStandardization($line);
fwrite($fp, $result."\n");
echo "\n ***** Standardized adddresses are saved to a file named output.txt.\n\n";
Soon, I started to realize that oftentimes addresses are stored with other data. It might sound like a pain to sift through all data just to extract the address colum/field. Then I modified the above code, which now could take in all data and process only addresses:
* Require the auto loader
* Use dirname(__FILE__) because "./" can be stripped by PHP's safety
* settings and __DIR__ was introduced in PHP 5.3.
require dirname(__FILE__) . '/autoload.php';
$Address = new AddressStandardizationSolution;
echo "\n***** Standardizing a batch of addresses from a file named testData.csv.\n\n";
$file = 'testData.csv' or die('could not open file!');
$handle = @fopen($file, "r") or die("could not open file!");
$fp = @fopen("output.txt", "w");
//Skip the header for processing, but write it to the output file:
$line = fgets($handle,4096);
echo "\nOpening test file and writing out the column headers to the output file:\n";
echo $line, "\n\n";
while(!feof($handle) ) {
//checks if the "end-of-file" (EOF) has been reached, good for looping through data of unknown length.
$line = fgets($handle,4096);
if (preg_match('/^.+,.+,.+,.+$/', $line) > 0) {
//handle $line here. fgets() function reads a single line from a file.
//Max length of a line in this case is 4096 characters. Adjust based on needs.
echo "\nThe line before splitting off the address:\n";
echo $line, "\n\n";
//Split the string into two parts and store the result in an array
$array = explode(",\"", $line);
echo "\nThe address before standardization:\n";
echo $array[1]."\n\n";
//The 2nd item in the list is the Address, so you want to standardize it. The index for the 2nd
//item is 1.
$array[1] = $Address->AddressLineStandardization($array[1]);
echo "\nThe address after standardization:\n";
echo $array[1]."\n\n";
//Add the double quotes back to the address
$array[1] = "\"".$array[1]."\"";
echo "\nThe address after adding the enclosing double quotes back:\n";
echo $array[1]."\n\n";
//Recreate the comma separated list after standardizing the list...
$result = implode(",", $array);
echo "\nThe line before writing to the output file:\n";
echo $result."\n\n";
fwrite($fp, $result."\n");
}
}
}
echo "\n ***** Standardized adddresses are saved to a file named output.txt.\n\n";
fclose($handle);
fclose($fp);
It can read both CSV and TXT input files.
Abc Abc,123456,212-232-3432,"Fifty Six Ave, Building Six, New York, NY 10024"
Xyz Xyz,97532543,353-452-4624,"334 Glory Lane, Building nineteen, Providence, Rhode Island"
Opq Opq,534545422,234-535-2352,"Thirteen Sunshine Boulevard, Cape Hatteras, North Carolina"
Rst Rst,795736,327-687-4573,"Eleven Fifth Avenue, Apartment Six, New York, NY 10022"
And there's the output in text file:
Abc Abc,123456,212-232-3432,FIFTY 6TH AVE,BLDG 6,NEW YORK,NY 10024
Xyz Xyz,97532543,353-452-4624,334 GLORY LN,BLDG 19,PROVIDENCE,RHODE IS
Opq Opq,534545422,234-535-2352,13 SUNSHINE BLVD,CPE HATTERAS,N CAROLINA,
Rst Rst,795736,327-687-4573,11 5TH AVE,APT 6,NEW YORK,NY 10022
Please feel free to tailor the code, reuse it, and contribute to it. Of course, I'd appreciate knowing how I could've made it better.
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