Normalizing street addresses in Django/Python

python django django-models django-forms geopy
Belmin Fernandez picture Belmin Fernandez · Jan 29, 2011 · Viewed 10k times · Source

I have a Django form where one of the fields is a TextInput for a street address.

I want to normalize the data. For example:

>> normalize('420 East 24th St.')
'420 E. 24th Street'

>> normalize('221 Amsterdam Av')
'221 Amsterdam Ave.'

>> normalize('221 Amsterdam Avenue')
'221 Amsterdam Ave.'

Or something like that. I'm already using geopy for geocoding. Perhaps this might help?

Also: Where should I normalize? In the database model or in the clean function of the form field?

Answer

mdwhatcott picture mdwhatcott · Oct 26, 2011

The most reliable way to do this is to utilize a bona-fide address verification service. Not only will it standardize (normalize) the address components according to USPS standards (see Publication 28) but you will also be certain that the address is real.

Full disclosure: I work for SmartyStreets, which provides just such a service. Here's some really simple python sample code that shows how to use our service via an HTTP GET request:

https://github.com/smartystreets/LiveAddressSamples/blob/master/python/street-address.py

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