PostGIS

Normalize_Address

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11.2. Tiger Geocoder

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Normalize_Address — Given a textual street address, returns a composite norm_addy type that has road suffix, prefix and type standardized, street, streetname etc. broken into separate fields. This function will work with just the lookup data packaged with the tiger_geocoder (no need for tiger census data).

Synopsis

norm_addy +`*`+normalize_address*(`varchar `in_address`)`;

Description

Given a textual street address, returns a composite norm_addy type that has road suffix, prefix and type standardized, street, streetname etc. broken into separate fields. This is the first step in the geocoding process to get all addresses into normalized postal form. No other data is required aside from what is packaged with the geocoder.

This function just uses the various direction/state/suffix lookup tables preloaded with the tiger_geocoder and located in the tiger schema, so it doesn’t need you to download tiger census data or any other additional data to make use of it. You may find the need to add more abbreviations or alternative namings to the various lookup tables in the tiger schema.

It uses various control lookup tables located in tiger schema to normalize the input address.

Fields in the norm_addy type object returned by this function in this order where () indicates a field required by the geocoder, [] indicates an optional field:

(address) [predirAbbrev] (streetName) [streetTypeAbbrev] [postdirAbbrev]

Enhanced: 2.4.0 norm_addy object includes additional fields zip4 and address_alphanumeric.

  1. address is an integer: The street number

  2. predirAbbrev is varchar: Directional prefix of road such as N, S, E, W etc. These are controlled using the direction_lookup table.

  3. streetName varchar

  4. streetTypeAbbrev varchar abbreviated version of street type: e.g. St, Ave, Cir. These are controlled using the street_type_lookup table.

  5. postdirAbbrev varchar abbreviated directional suffice of road N, S, E, W etc. These are controlled using the direction_lookup table.

  6. internal varchar internal address such as an apartment or suite number.

  7. location varchar usually a city or governing province.

  8. stateAbbrev varchar two character US State. e.g MA, NY, MI. These are controlled by the state_lookup table.

  9. zip varchar 5-digit zipcode. e.g. 02109.

  10. parsed boolean - denotes if addess was formed from normalize process. The normalize_address function sets this to true before returning the address.

  11. zip4 last 4 digits of a 9 digit zip code. Availability: PostGIS 2.4.0.

  12. address_alphanumeric Full street number even if it has alpha characters like 17R. Parsing of this is better using Pagc_Normalize_Address function. Availability: PostGIS 2.4.0.

Examples

Output select fields. Use Pprint_Addy if you want a pretty textual output.

SELECT address As orig, (g.na).streetname, (g.na).streettypeabbrev
 FROM (SELECT address, normalize_address(address) As na
        FROM addresses_to_geocode) As g;

                        orig                         |  streetname   | streettypeabbrev
-----------------------------------------------------+---------------+------------------
 28 Capen Street, Medford, MA                        | Capen         | St
 124 Mount Auburn St, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 | Mount Auburn  | St
 950 Main Street, Worcester, MA 01610                | Main          | St
 529 Main Street, Boston MA, 02129                   | Main          | St
 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139        | Massachusetts | Ave
 25 Wizard of Oz, Walaford, KS 99912323              | Wizard of Oz  |

See Also

Geocode, Pprint_Addy

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