←back to thread

Libpostal: C library for parsing/normalizing street addresses around the world

(github.com)
82 points nateb2022 | 1 comments | 09 Jul 25 01:45 UTC | HN request time: 0.202s | source
Show context
jandrese ◴[09 Jul 25 03:40 UTC] No.44506150[source]▶
Wow, ambitious project. Anybody who has tried to verify addresses can tell you that the staggering number of different formats and conventions around the world make it and almost intractable problem. So many countries have wildly informal standards and people putting down just whatever they want because the mailman "just knows".
replies(2): >>44506286 #>>44509102 #
derdi ◴[09 Jul 25 12:15 UTC] No.44509102[source]▶
> Anybody who has tried to verify addresses

Why would one try to "verify" addresses that one knows nothing about?

> because the mailman "just knows"

The mailman does "just know", and the mailman is who the address is for. Web forms I have seen that have tried to "verify" my address have never done so in a way that made the address better for the mailman.

EDIT: I've long thought that web forms should not have separate "street", "street line 2", "number", "apartment", "whatever" fields. Instead they should offer a multi-line input field labeled "this will go straight on the address label, write whatever you like but it's your problem if it doesn't arrive". You'd probably still need separate fields for town/postcode for calculating postage. And of course it wouldn't work because the downstream delivery company would also insist on something it can "verify".

replies(2): >>44509595 #>>44509967 #
kevin_thibedeau ◴[09 Jul 25 13:07 UTC] No.44509595[source]▶
For the US the underlying need for parsing is to determine a definitive location so that taxation, which can vary down to the municipality level, can be computed.
replies(1): >>44509961 #
1. devilbunny ◴[09 Jul 25 13:43 UTC] No.44509961[source]▶
And even then isn’t necessarily enough. A college friend worked at a pizza place that did almost all business by delivery. The store itself actually crossed a city-county border. The cash registers were physically in the back, because that was the county (with lower sales tax). Technically, all money changed hands in the county, not the city.

I would be more suspicious of this story if I hadn’t seen that the registers were, actually, in the back. And they didn’t have a pickup window back there or anything.