Free Online Address Parsing and Normalization

Address Parsing and Normalization

Overview

Address parsing is the process of dividing a single address string into its individual component parts, while address normalization converts these parts into their standardized equivalents. The services provided on this page do both of these tasks using a deterministic approach, one in a single record fashion and the other processing a database of records in batch. For address parsing, a set of rules have been developed using tokenization on white spaces between words, the ordering of the tokens, and a series of alias tables to determine each of the individual address components.

Once the type of the tokens have been identified, normalization is performed with more alias tables to make a best effort attempt to normalize the components to the desired output format. Currently, we have fairly compliant implementations of the USPS Publication 28 Standard, the US Census TIGER/Line Address Format, the address format used by the Los Angeles County Chief Information Office.

Please note that this software is not USPS CASS Certified but works farily well on most normal address data and is constantly being improved. You may want to read the technical details and the known bugs.

If you encounter any problems or find any cases where the software fails, we would like to hear about it so we can work to improve the quality of the services. Please let us know.

Available free services

Deterministic address parsing and normalization: Turn a non-parsed postal street address into its parsed, normalized and standardized form
Batch Database Parsing and Normalization: Run the deterministic address parsing and normalization process over a database of records
Address Parsing and Normalization Web Service APIs: Use one of the web service APIs to parse and normalize address data from your desktop or web applications

Usage Fees and Rules

Our services are provided free of charge in allotments of 2500 transactions. All we ask is that you cite us in your work and/or add a link to us on your website.

Details of our usage policy including how to obtain additional credits and non-throttled access to our services are available on this page. Please contact us if you need more information.