

Ask HN: Name/address/e-mail/phone parsing? - Flemlord

I have a block of text that contains an address, city, state and zip. I need to break it out into separate fields.<p>I know this has been done 1000x times before but I can't find a decent library. Anybody know of one? Free is preferable but I'd be happy to buy a component as long as it's royalty-free.<p>I also need parsers for names, e-mail and phone numbers. Any help is appreciated.
======
oldgregg
Good question. I've used everything from expensive mail house software to
hacked scripts, I still haven't found anything very versatile... maybe hire
some Indians (or mturk?).

------
Flemlord
Update on my search: I'm currently looking at something called NetAddress. It
seems to work well but costs $500. Probably better than writing it myself but
I'm not eager to cough up that much cash.

<http://www.softwarecompany.com/dotnet/netaddress.htm>

Plus, it's made by a company called "Software Company". That can't be good.

~~~
Flemlord
Final Update: I eventually broke down and wrote the parsers myself it ended up
taking me about three days, complete with a hundred-odd test cases.

------
crazyirish
I recall doing this with a bunch of horrible regexs a few years ago when I
needed something pretty quickly. Let me know what you find.

