droping street types from query

glyndower

Hello All,
I have a db that has homes in it. There are several dozen fields two of which are "Street Number" and "Street Name" the street name feild has data like "first dr" or Second Rd." or the like. I need to call the information as shown below but I need to drop the street type deignation i.e "St" "Rd" "Dr" etc... from the Street Name field before I can pass it on.....

/////http://adomianname.com/PAlink.asp?StreetNumber=".$prop['StreetNumber']."&StreetName=".$prop['StreetName']."

Can this be done? I can not remove this information from the db, as it used elsewhere, I just need to filter it out for this one call.

xblue

I can't know why you want to drop them. If it was to get rid of the spaces I'd give urlencode() a try.

Else you could simple string replace functions like str_replace, strtr and so on, or regular expressions if you want to be more specific.

glyndower

thanks for the reply and the suggestion....i'm afraid i dont understand though...how would that work?

I have to remove them as the site they are being passed to disallows their use for the search to work

xblue

for the first approach, you'd replace $prop['StreetName'] with urlencode($prop['StreetName']) in your script. shouldn't hurt to try it that way before you start digging into the magics of regular expressions 😉

glyndower

Looks like I need to explore the magics.....I had already tried the urlencode, but the search on the site it gets passed to dosn't like it that way either.....it wants just the name with no street type designation.....

xblue

okay, a first pattern for you as a starter - tweek it to your needs:

/\s+(st|rd|dr)\.?$/i
\s+: whitespace (I assume it's required)
(st|rd|dr): either st or rd or dr
\.? the dot (I assume it's optional)
$ means the pattern before needs to occur at the end of the string (assumption again)
the final i makes the pattern case-insensitive, so the letters may be uppercase as well

glyndower

ok....you lost me completly on that one....can you simplify/expand on that a bit more for the ignorant peasant please?

glyndower

I guess what I'm asking is a real world example of the written code.. is it like ///$name = ereg_replace( "'", "", $name );
?

Roger_Ramjet

I think you have a real problem here. What happens if the address is 37 Lower Stanley St, or 57 The Drive ?? (We have such street names here in the UK)

Now, if the street type is always the last part, and always preceded by a space, then you could look backwards from the end of the field for the position of the last space and use that to calculate how much of the string to drop.

What we really need to help you are is a representative sample of the real data you are having trouble with.

What I can't understand is why the site you are submitting to wants this. How on earth are they using it? If it was my address you are submitting then you would have trouble as I live in 'The Oval', not the oval street or the ovel road, just the oval. How would they handle that?

glyndower

Yes, I agree, I dont understand why it is that way, but none the less it is what it is. I ahve tried it at their site also and adding the street type does in fact muck up the search results.

The real data is as I have mentioned two feilds in the table, one street name the other street number...the street types are included in the street name filed....they vary from circle dr st rd etc....its a real quandry ....

glyndower

additionally, i have mentioned to the site owner that this feature will be "quirky" at best as I anticipated it to be somewhat of an issue.

Roger_Ramjet

And as I said, post a sample of the data in the street name field, a representative sample. It is an intriguing problem, but impossible to offer any usefull advise untill we see what we are actually dealing with. There are just too many possible combinations, and we all live in different countries with very different naming conventions. Don't worry about confidetiality: without house numbers and cities it will be meaningless in that sense.

glyndower

N FOWLER POINT
HOLIDAY DR
SNOW MEMORIAL HWY
LOST PINE TRAIL
LANSFIELD ST
1ST ISLE DR
LINDEN DR
COUNTRYWOOD CT
ELWOOD RD
LONG VIEW CIR
LONG VIEW CIR
HENDERSON ST
CRANSTON ST
GOODWAY DR
PARK RIDGE DR
MANVEL DRIVE
CR 415
UNDERWOOD AVENUE
SIMONA AVE
LINDEN DR
ABELINE RD
GREYNOLDS AVE
SW 83RD PLACE
CR 452A
CR 243C
CR 542 E
CR 303
GREENWOOD ST
SPRING HILL DR

Weedpacket

You might want to look at this thread.

glyndower

ok, i did....not sure what for but i did take a look....an i missing somehting?

glyndower

oh wait...i see it now.....wow...that just might do it!

glyndower

it did it did! wahoo!!! thank you! Thank you! Thank YOU!

Roger_Ramjet

You are right weed, just the thing to expose the problem in all it's complexity. Makes the push for post offices around the world to publish and enforce XML address schemas a screaming neccessity.

At least here in the UK we have standard Post Code that everyone can use. You can even get a database of them. With the post code and a house number you can look up every address in the UK, no need to worry about validating the rest of it. With the post code alone you'll get 1-10 addresses, all in the same street.

Hell, with the post code you can even look up the latitude and longditude of the house, or a street map, on the Ordinance Survey's website.

Which still begs the question, what kind of site are you passing the info to, Glyndower? Just a pity they don't have post codes where you are Glyndower.

glyndower

the information is being passed to the Property Apprasers website. You can see it in action:

http://www.hernandohomesearch.com/nsearch.php

search for something residential and the hit the link to the PA's website from the results page.

Roger_Ramjet

So that's what freedom of information gets you, amazing. Now I can see why the powers-that-be are so against it here in the UK. No way do they want anyone being able to look-up the value of their property and the taxes they pay, let alone who owns it. And of course our solicitors (lawyers) make a fortune out of title searches every time someone buys and sells a house. Can't see them giving that up.