jrgparamo / pobox-regex

A Better PO Box Filter

pobox-regex

A better, simple PO Box Filter that is built around real-world address problems.

The RegEx

/(?:P(?:ost(?:al)?)?[\.\-\s]*(?:(?:O(?:ffice)?[\.\-\s]*)?B(?:ox|in|\b|\d)|o(?:ffice|\b)(?:[-\s]*\d)|code)|box[-\s\b]*\d)/i

Positive List

• PO Box 123
• P O box 123
• P. O. Box 123
• P.O.Box 123
• post box 123
• post office box 123
• post office 123
• P.O.B 123
• P.O.B. 123
• Post Office Bin 123
• Postal Code 123
• Post Box #123
• Postal Box 123
• P.O. Box 123
• PO. Box 123
• P.o box 123
• Pobox 123
• pob 123
• pob123
• pobox123
• p.o. Box123
• po-box123
• p.o.-box 123
• PO-Box 123
• p-o-box 123
• p-o box 123
• box 123
• Box123
• Box-123

Negative List

• 123 Box Turtle Circle, Sarasota, FL
• 123 Boxing Pass, San Antonio, TX
• 123 Poblano Lane, Edinburg, TX
• 123 P O Davis Drive, Auburn, AL
• 123 Postal Circle, Manitowish Waters, WI

Verification with PHP

• Clone repo
• composer install
• phpunit

Credits

Some inspiration from Greg Ferrel.

Further Pointers

This project aims at a simple approach. You should look into address verification services If you need to identify bad street numbers, zip codes and other factors.