PO Box Regular Expression Validation

This is what i have used accounting for spaces and case insensitive:

http://regexr.com/3cc2q

var pattern = /\bP(ost|ostal)?([ \.]*(O|0)(ffice)?)?([ \.]*Box)\b/i;
  • fail - po box
  • fail - p.o. box
  • fail - po bo
  • fail - post office box
  • fail - P.O. Box
  • fail - PO. Box
  • fail - PO Box
  • fail - POBox
  • fail - P O Box
  • fail - P.O Box
  • fail - PO
  • fail - Postal Box
  • fail - Post Office Box
  • pass - poop box
  • pass - pony box

With Javascript its easier to use a regex literal like so:

var pattern = /\b(?:p\.?\s*o\.?|post\s+office)\s+box\b/i;

(No backslashes required!)


In javascript, you have to escape your slashes:

var pattern = new RegExp('\\b[P|p]*(OST|ost)*\\.*\\s*[O|o|0]*(ffice|FFICE)*\\.*\\s*[B|b][O|o|0][X|x]\\b');

Also, you could reduce your pattern a bit by using case-insensitive matching:

var pattern = new RegExp('\\b[p]*(ost)*\\.*\\s*[o|0]*(ffice)*\\.*\\s*b[o|0]x\\b', 'i');

Note: Your regex also matches on addresses such as:

  • 123 Poor Box Road
  • 123 Harpo Box Street

I would suggest also checking for a number in the string. Perhaps this pattern from a previous answer would be of some help:

var pattern = new RegExp('[PO.]*\\s?B(ox)?.*\\d+', 'i');

(it won't match on "Post Office" spelled out, or the numeric replacements.. but it's a start.)


I tried several PO Box RegExp patterns found on the internet including the ones posted on Stack Overflow, none of them passed our test requirements. Hence, I posted our RegExp below and our test sets:

var poBox = /^ *((#\d+)|((box|bin)[-. \/\\]?\d+)|(.*p[ \.]? ?(o|0)[-. \/\\]? *-?((box|bin)|b|(#|n|num|number)?\d+))|(p(ost|ostal)? *(o(ff(ice)?)?)? *((box|bin)|b)? *(#|n|num|number)*\d+)|(p *-?\/?(o)? *-?box)|post office box|((box|bin)|b) *(#|n|num|number)? *\d+|(#|n|num|number) *\d+)/i;

var matches = [ //"box" can be substituted for "bin" 
    "#123", 
    "Box 123", 
    "Box-122", 
    "Box122", 
    "HC73 P.O. Box 217", 
    "P O Box125", 
    "P. O. Box", 
    "P.O 123", 
    "P.O. Box 123", 
    "P.O. Box", 
    "P.O.B 123",
    "P.O.B. 123", 
    "P.O.B.", 
    "P0 Box", 
    "PO 123", 
    "PO Box N", 
    "PO Box", 
    "PO-Box", 
    "POB 123", 
    "POB", 
    "POBOX123",
    "Po Box", 
    "Post 123", 
    "Post Box 123", 
    "Post Office Box 123", 
    "Post Office Box", 
    "box #123", 
    "box 122", 
    "box 123", 
    "number 123", 
    "p box", 
    "p-o box", 
    "p-o-box", 
    "p.o box", 
    "p.o. box", 
    "p.o.-box", 
    "p.o.b. #123", 
    "p.o.b.", 
    "p/o box", 
    "po #123", 
    "po box 123", 
    "po box", 
    "po num123", 
    "po-box", 
    "pobox", 
    "pobox123", 
    "post office box", 
    "Post Box #123" 
];

var nonMatches = [ 
    "The Postal Road", 
    "Box Hill", 
    "123 Some Street", 
    "Controller's Office", 
    "pollo St.", 
    "123 box canyon rd", 
    "777 Post Oak Blvd", 
    "PSC 477 Box 396", 
    "RR 1 Box 1020" 
];

Tags:

Javascript

Jquery

Regex

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