CleanAddress

Cleanse a residential address

Live Demo

To connect to this service you'll need to use one of these endpoints:

WSDL

https://webservices.data-8.co.uk/postcoder.asmx

JSON

https://webservices.data-8.co.uk/Postcoder/CleanAddress.json

Description

Formats, verifies and corrects a given address into a full address.

Non-UK addresses are also handled and produce a MatchLevel in the result of NOK_Foreign. See the options below to control how international addresses are handled.

Parameters

The following parameters can be supplied to this method

username	username See the available authentication methods. If you are using username & password authentication, specify the username to authenticate as. If you are using API Key authentication and you are not using the JSON, Javascript or ADO APIs, use your API Key here with the prefix `apikey-`, e.g. `apikey-ABCD-1234-EFGH-5678`
password	password If you are using username & password authentication, specify the password to use for authentication. Otherwise leave this blank.
address	address The address to clean. The best results will be obtained when individual parts of the address are supplied on separate lines or separated within a line by commas, but the service will make best attempts to match data supplied in any format.
options	options An array of options that control further details of how this method operates. See the Advanced Options section below for more information.

Advanced Options

The following options can be specified as part of the option parameter. Each option is specified as a key/value pair. The list of available names is shown below, along with a description of the allowable values for that name.

Common Options

Name Description

ApplicationName

ApplicationName

Gives the name of the calling application - used to break down usage by application in the usage reports on the dashboard

Service-Specific Options

Name Description

DefaultCountryCode

DefaultCountryCode

An ISO 2-character code for the country to assume the address is in unless otherwise specified.

DetectCountry

DetectCountry

Set to true to attempt to automatically detect the country from the provided address information, possibly overriding the default country

Country

Country

If DetectCountry is set to true, this is taken as additional user input alongside the address to influence the country detection function. The format of this is not enforced, so could be provided as US, USA or United States

IncludeCountry

IncludeCountry

Includes the CountryISO2 field in the raw address result and the CountryName field in the main part of the result

FixTownCounty

FixTownCounty

true to ensure the last two lines of the formatted address are used to hold the town and county, or false otherwise.

MaxLines

MaxLines

The number of lines to format the address over.

Formatter

Formatter

This option can be set to the name of a pre-defined formatting type that controls how the address is formatted. The following values are allowed:

Name	Description
`DefaultFormatter`	This is the standard formatting type as described above.
`NoOrganisationFormatter`	This works in the same way as the `DefaultFormatter`, but omits any organisation or departmental information from the address.
`PAFStandardFormatter`	This produces an address in the standard format recommended by the Royal Mail for printing addresses on envelopes. It produces formatted addresses containing however many lines are necessary to hold the information stored in each particular address, and does not use any county information.

IncludeUDPRN

IncludeUDPRN

Set to true to have the UniqueReference field of each returned address populated with the UDPRN

IncludeLocation

IncludeLocation

Set to true to have the Location field of each returned address populated with the geocoding details for the address

IncludeUPRN

IncludeUPRN

set to true to include the UPRN for UK addresses. This is not available by default - speak to your account manager to enable this option. Cannot be used in conjunction with IncludeUDPRN - only one of these options can be specified. The UPRN value is stored in the UniqueReference property of the response.

Results

This method returns an object containing the following fields:

Status	Status Indicates whether the method call was successful, or if some error occurred. If the `Success` field is `true`, the other results described below can be used to get the results of the method. If `Success` is `false`, some error occurred in calling the method, such as the authentication failed or the account is out of credits. The details of the error can be obtained from the `ErrorMessage` field, and any other results should be ignored
Result	Result Contains the formatted version of the requested address in the `Address` field, and a structured version of the address in the `RawAddress` field
MatchLevel	MatchLevel Indicates how well the supplied address matched to PAF. Possible values are: `OK_Unchanged` - the supplied address matched to PAF without requiring any changes `OK_Corrected` - the supplied address matched to PAF but required some corrections to do so `NOK_Building` - the supplied address could not be matched to a unique address on PAF, but did match to a unique building. More information would be needed to identify a single address within that building. This usually indicates either a commercial building for which an organisation name is required to identify the individual company in it, or an apartment building but no flat or apartment number has been supplied `NOK_Street` - the supplied address could not be matched to a unique address on PAF, but did match to a street. If building information has been supplied it does not match to that on PAF or is ambiguous between two or more different buildings. `NOK_Town` - the supplied address could not be matched to a unique address on PAF. Only the town name could be matched - the street and building information did not match or was ambiguous. `NOK_NoMatch` - the supplied address could not be matched at all to PAF. `NOK_Foreign` - the address appears to be non-UK and therefore has not been matched to PAF.
CountryName	CountryName The name of the country the address is in. This is only populated when the `IncludeCountry` option is set to `true`

Live Demo

address

Lines

Sorry, this parameter type is not currently supported in Live Demo

options

Name	Value
Common Options
ApplicationName
Service-Specific Options
DefaultCountryCode
DetectCountry
Country
IncludeCountry
FixTownCounty
MaxLines
Formatter
IncludeUDPRN
IncludeLocation
IncludeUPRN

Sample Code

<!-- Import the Integr8 Ajax API -->
<!-- NOTE: Get your own API key to use in the following script tag from: -->
<!-- https://www.data-8.co.uk/ValidationAdmin/AjaxAPIKey -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://webservices.data-8.co.uk/Javascript/Loader.ashx?key=your-api-key&load=Postcoder">
</script>

<script type="text/javascript">

function CleanAddress(address) {
  /// <param name="address">data8.address. Set up the Lines properties before calling this method.</param>
  var postcoder = new data8.postcoder();
  
  postcoder.cleanaddress(
    address,
    [
      new data8.option('DefaultCountryCode', 'GB'),
      new data8.option('DetectCountry', 'false'),
      new data8.option('Country', ''),
      new data8.option('IncludeCountry', 'true'),
      new data8.option('FixTownCounty', 'false'),
      new data8.option('MaxLines', '5'),
      new data8.option('Formatter', 'DefaultFormatter'),
      new data8.option('IncludeUDPRN', 'true'),
      new data8.option('IncludeLocation', 'true'),
      new data8.option('IncludeUPRN', 'false')
    ],
    showCleanAddressResult
  );
}

function showCleanAddressResult(result) {
  // Check that the call succeeded, and show the error message if there was a problem.
  if (!result.Status.Success) {
    alert('Error: ' + result.Status.ErrorMessage);
  }
  else {
    // TODO: Process method results here.
    // Results can be extracted from the following fields:
    // result.Result
    //   Contains the formatted version of the requested address in the `Address` field, and a structured version of the address in the `RawAddress` field
    // result.MatchLevel
    //   Indicates how well the supplied address matched to PAF. Possible values are:
    //   
    //   * `OK_Unchanged` - the supplied address matched to PAF without requiring any changes
    //   * `OK_Corrected` - the supplied address matched to PAF but required some corrections to do so
    //   * `NOK_Building` - the supplied address could not be matched to a unique address on PAF, but did match to a unique building. More information would be needed to identify a single address within that building. This usually indicates either a commercial building for which an organisation name is required to identify the individual company in it, or an apartment building but no flat or apartment number has been supplied
    //   * `NOK_Street` - the supplied address could not be matched to a unique address on PAF, but did match to a street. If building information has been supplied it does not match to that on PAF or is ambiguous between two or more different buildings.
    //   * `NOK_Town` - the supplied address could not be matched to a unique address on PAF. Only the town name could be matched - the street and building information did not match or was ambiguous.
    //   * `NOK_NoMatch` - the supplied address could not be matched at all to PAF.
    //   * `NOK_Foreign` - the address appears to be non-UK and therefore has not been matched to PAF.
    // result.CountryName
    //   The name of the country the address is in. This is only populated when the `IncludeCountry` option is set to `true`
  }
}

</script>

// NOTE: A Service Reference to the web service must be added to use this sample code.
private void CleanAddress(Address address)
{
    // Declare the required options.
    Option DefaultCountryCode = new Option();
    DefaultCountryCode.Name = "DefaultCountryCode";
    DefaultCountryCode.Value = "GB";
    Option DetectCountry = new Option();
    DetectCountry.Name = "DetectCountry";
    DetectCountry.Value = "false";
    Option Country = new Option();
    Country.Name = "Country";
    Country.Value = "";
    Option IncludeCountry = new Option();
    IncludeCountry.Name = "IncludeCountry";
    IncludeCountry.Value = "true";
    Option FixTownCounty = new Option();
    FixTownCounty.Name = "FixTownCounty";
    FixTownCounty.Value = "false";
    Option MaxLines = new Option();
    MaxLines.Name = "MaxLines";
    MaxLines.Value = "5";
    Option Formatter = new Option();
    Formatter.Name = "Formatter";
    Formatter.Value = "DefaultFormatter";
    Option IncludeUDPRN = new Option();
    IncludeUDPRN.Name = "IncludeUDPRN";
    IncludeUDPRN.Value = "true";
    Option IncludeLocation = new Option();
    IncludeLocation.Name = "IncludeLocation";
    IncludeLocation.Value = "true";
    Option IncludeUPRN = new Option();
    IncludeUPRN.Name = "IncludeUPRN";
    IncludeUPRN.Value = "false";
    // Invoke the web service method.
    PostcoderSoapClient proxy = new PostcoderSoapClient();
    PostcoderOutput results = proxy.CleanAddress("your-username", "your-password", address, new Option[] {
                DefaultCountryCode,
                DetectCountry,
                Country,
                IncludeCountry,
                FixTownCounty,
                MaxLines,
                Formatter,
                IncludeUDPRN,
                IncludeLocation,
                IncludeUPRN});
    // Check that the call succeeded, and show the error message if there was a problem.
    if ((results.Status.Success == false))
    {
        MessageBox.Show(("Error: " + results.Status.ErrorMessage));
    }
    else
    {
        // TODO: Process method results here.
        // Results can be extracted from the following fields:
        // result.Result
        //   Contains the formatted version of the requested address in the `Address` field, and a structured version of the address in the `RawAddress` field
        // result.MatchLevel
        //   Indicates how well the supplied address matched to PAF. Possible values are:
        //   
        //   * `OK_Unchanged` - the supplied address matched to PAF without requiring any changes
        //   * `OK_Corrected` - the supplied address matched to PAF but required some corrections to do so
        //   * `NOK_Building` - the supplied address could not be matched to a unique address on PAF, but did match to a unique building. More information would be needed to identify a single address within that building. This usually indicates either a commercial building for which an organisation name is required to identify the individual company in it, or an apartment building but no flat or apartment number has been supplied
        //   * `NOK_Street` - the supplied address could not be matched to a unique address on PAF, but did match to a street. If building information has been supplied it does not match to that on PAF or is ambiguous between two or more different buildings.
        //   * `NOK_Town` - the supplied address could not be matched to a unique address on PAF. Only the town name could be matched - the street and building information did not match or was ambiguous.
        //   * `NOK_NoMatch` - the supplied address could not be matched at all to PAF.
        //   * `NOK_Foreign` - the address appears to be non-UK and therefore has not been matched to PAF.
        // result.CountryName
        //   The name of the country the address is in. This is only populated when the `IncludeCountry` option is set to `true`
    }
}

'NOTE: A Service Reference to the web service must be added to use this sample code.
Private Sub CleanAddress(ByVal address As Address)
    'Declare the required options.
    Dim DefaultCountryCode As [Option] = New [Option]()
    DefaultCountryCode.Name = "DefaultCountryCode"
    DefaultCountryCode.Value = "GB"
    Dim DetectCountry As [Option] = New [Option]()
    DetectCountry.Name = "DetectCountry"
    DetectCountry.Value = "false"
    Dim Country As [Option] = New [Option]()
    Country.Name = "Country"
    Country.Value = ""
    Dim IncludeCountry As [Option] = New [Option]()
    IncludeCountry.Name = "IncludeCountry"
    IncludeCountry.Value = "true"
    Dim FixTownCounty As [Option] = New [Option]()
    FixTownCounty.Name = "FixTownCounty"
    FixTownCounty.Value = "false"
    Dim MaxLines As [Option] = New [Option]()
    MaxLines.Name = "MaxLines"
    MaxLines.Value = "5"
    Dim Formatter As [Option] = New [Option]()
    Formatter.Name = "Formatter"
    Formatter.Value = "DefaultFormatter"
    Dim IncludeUDPRN As [Option] = New [Option]()
    IncludeUDPRN.Name = "IncludeUDPRN"
    IncludeUDPRN.Value = "true"
    Dim IncludeLocation As [Option] = New [Option]()
    IncludeLocation.Name = "IncludeLocation"
    IncludeLocation.Value = "true"
    Dim IncludeUPRN As [Option] = New [Option]()
    IncludeUPRN.Name = "IncludeUPRN"
    IncludeUPRN.Value = "false"
    'Invoke the web service method.
    Dim proxy As PostcoderSoapClient = New PostcoderSoapClient()
    Dim results As PostcoderOutput = proxy.CleanAddress("your-username", "your-password", address, New [Option]() {DefaultCountryCode, DetectCountry, Country, IncludeCountry, FixTownCounty, MaxLines, Formatter, IncludeUDPRN, IncludeLocation, IncludeUPRN})
    'Check that the call succeeded, and show the error message if there was a problem.
    If (results.Status.Success = false) Then
        MessageBox.Show(("Error: " + results.Status.ErrorMessage))
    Else
        'TODO: Process method results here.
        'Results can be extracted from the following fields:
        'result.Result
        '  Contains the formatted version of the requested address in the `Address` field, and a structured version of the address in the `RawAddress` field
        'result.MatchLevel
        '  Indicates how well the supplied address matched to PAF. Possible values are:
        '  
        '  * `OK_Unchanged` - the supplied address matched to PAF without requiring any changes
        '  * `OK_Corrected` - the supplied address matched to PAF but required some corrections to do so
        '  * `NOK_Building` - the supplied address could not be matched to a unique address on PAF, but did match to a unique building. More information would be needed to identify a single address within that building. This usually indicates either a commercial building for which an organisation name is required to identify the individual company in it, or an apartment building but no flat or apartment number has been supplied
        '  * `NOK_Street` - the supplied address could not be matched to a unique address on PAF, but did match to a street. If building information has been supplied it does not match to that on PAF or is ambiguous between two or more different buildings.
        '  * `NOK_Town` - the supplied address could not be matched to a unique address on PAF. Only the town name could be matched - the street and building information did not match or was ambiguous.
        '  * `NOK_NoMatch` - the supplied address could not be matched at all to PAF.
        '  * `NOK_Foreign` - the address appears to be non-UK and therefore has not been matched to PAF.
        'result.CountryName
        '  The name of the country the address is in. This is only populated when the `IncludeCountry` option is set to `true`
    End If
End Sub

// NOTE: The php_soap.dll extension must be enabled in the php.ini file.

$address = array(
  "Lines" => array(
    "Unit 2",
    "Venture Point",
    "Stanney Mill Road",
    "Chester",
    "CH2 4NE"
  )
);

function CleanAddress($address)
{
  $options = array(
    "Option" => array(
      array(
        "Name" => "DefaultCountryCode",
        "Value" => "GB"
      ),
      array(
        "Name" => "DetectCountry",
        "Value" => "false"
      ),
      array(
        "Name" => "Country",
        "Value" => ""
      ),
      array(
        "Name" => "IncludeCountry",
        "Value" => "true"
      ),
      array(
        "Name" => "FixTownCounty",
        "Value" => "false"
      ),
      array(
        "Name" => "MaxLines",
        "Value" => "5"
      ),
      array(
        "Name" => "Formatter",
        "Value" => "DefaultFormatter"
      ),
      array(
        "Name" => "IncludeUDPRN",
        "Value" => "true"
      ),
      array(
        "Name" => "IncludeLocation",
        "Value" => "true"
      ),
      array(
        "Name" => "IncludeUPRN",
        "Value" => "false"
      )
    )
  );
  $params = array(
    "username" => "your-username",
    "password" => "your-password",
    "address" => $address,
    "options" => $options
  );
  $client = new SoapClient("https://webservices.data-8.co.uk/Postcoder.asmx?WSDL");
  $result = $client->CleanAddress($params);
  if ($result->CleanAddressResult->Status->Success == 0)
  {
    echo "Error: " . $result->CleanAddressResult->Status->ErrorMessage;
  }
  else
  {
    // TODO: Process method results here.
    // Results can be extracted from the following fields:
    // $result->CleanAddressResult->Result
    //   Contains the formatted version of the requested address in the `Address` field, and a structured version of the address in the `RawAddress` field
    // $result->CleanAddressResult->MatchLevel
    //   Indicates how well the supplied address matched to PAF. Possible values are:
    //   
    //   * `OK_Unchanged` - the supplied address matched to PAF without requiring any changes
    //   * `OK_Corrected` - the supplied address matched to PAF but required some corrections to do so
    //   * `NOK_Building` - the supplied address could not be matched to a unique address on PAF, but did match to a unique building. More information would be needed to identify a single address within that building. This usually indicates either a commercial building for which an organisation name is required to identify the individual company in it, or an apartment building but no flat or apartment number has been supplied
    //   * `NOK_Street` - the supplied address could not be matched to a unique address on PAF, but did match to a street. If building information has been supplied it does not match to that on PAF or is ambiguous between two or more different buildings.
    //   * `NOK_Town` - the supplied address could not be matched to a unique address on PAF. Only the town name could be matched - the street and building information did not match or was ambiguous.
    //   * `NOK_NoMatch` - the supplied address could not be matched at all to PAF.
    //   * `NOK_Foreign` - the address appears to be non-UK and therefore has not been matched to PAF.
    // $result->CleanAddressResult->CountryName
    //   The name of the country the address is in. This is only populated when the `IncludeCountry` option is set to `true`
  }
}

Request Format

{
  "address": {
    "Lines": [
      "Unit 2",
      "Venture Point",
      "Stanney Mill Road",
      "Chester",
      "CH2 4NE"
    ]
  },
  "options": {
    "DefaultCountryCode": "GB",
    "DetectCountry": false,
    "Country": "",
    "IncludeCountry": true,
    "FixTownCounty": false,
    "MaxLines": 5,
    "Formatter": "DefaultFormatter",
    "IncludeUDPRN": true,
    "IncludeLocation": true,
    "IncludeUPRN": false
  }
}

Results Format

{
  "Status": {
    "Success": true,
    "CreditsRemaining": 1000
  },
  "Result": null,
  "MatchLevel": "",
  "CountryName": ""
}

Depending on your chosen authentication method you will need to modify this request slightly:

Public Sub CleanAddress(address As String)
Dim rs As ADODB.Recordset
Set rs = New ADODB.Recordset
rs.Open "https://webservices.data-8.co.uk/recordset.ashx?service=Postcoder&method=CleanAddressSimple" &
"&username=your-username" &
"&password=your-password" &
"&address=" & address
If rs.MoveFirst Then
If rs.Fields(0).Name = "Success" And rs.Fields(0).Value = false Then
MsgBox "Error: " & rs.Fields(1)
Else
'TODO: Process method results here.
'All the results are available in the first row in the recordset.
'Results can be extracted from the following fields:
'Result
' Contains the formatted version of the requested address in the `Address` field, and a structured version of the address in the `RawAddress` field
'MatchLevel
' Indicates how well the supplied address matched to PAF. Possible values are:
'
' * `OK_Unchanged` - the supplied address matched to PAF without requiring any changes
' * `OK_Corrected` - the supplied address matched to PAF but required some corrections to do so
' * `NOK_Building` - the supplied address could not be matched to a unique address on PAF, but did match to a unique building. More information would be needed to identify a single address within that building. This usually indicates either a commercial building for which an organisation name is required to identify the individual company in it, or an apartment building but no flat or apartment number has been supplied
' * `NOK_Street` - the supplied address could not be matched to a unique address on PAF, but did match to a street. If building information has been supplied it does not match to that on PAF or is ambiguous between two or more different buildings.
' * `NOK_Town` - the supplied address could not be matched to a unique address on PAF. Only the town name could be matched - the street and building information did not match or was ambiguous.
' * `NOK_NoMatch` - the supplied address could not be matched at all to PAF.
' * `NOK_Foreign` - the address appears to be non-UK and therefore has not been matched to PAF.
'CountryName
' The name of the country the address is in. This is only populated when the `IncludeCountry` option is set to `true`
End If
End If
End Sub