International Address Formats

Every country has its own address conventions. Building global applications requires understanding these differences.

Address Ordering Patterns

Western (Street First)

Used in US, UK, Canada, Australia:

1123 Main Street
2New York, NY 10001
3USA

European (Postal Before City)

Used in Germany, France, Netherlands:

1Friedrichstraße 123
210117 Berlin
3Germany

Asian (Large to Small)

Used in Japan, China, Korea:

1〒150-0041
2東京都渋谷区神南1-2-3
3Japan

Country Format Reference

Japan (JP)

1〒150-0041
2東京都渋谷区神南1丁目2番3号
3ABCビル 5階

Order: Postal Code → Prefecture → City → District → Block → Building

Brazil (BR)

1Av. Paulista, 1000
2Bela Vista
3São Paulo - SP
401310-100
5Brazil

Format: Street, Number, Neighborhood, City - State, CEP

CEP: 8 digits, XXXXX-XXX

China (CN)

1中国
2北京市
3朝阳区
4建国门外大街1号
5100020

Order: Country → Province → City → District → Street → Postal

South Korea (KR)

1(06236)
2서울특별시 강남구 테헤란로 152
3강남파이낸스센터

Order: Postal → City → District → Road → Building

Australia (AU)

1123 Collins Street
2Melbourne VIC 3000
3Australia

Postal Code: 4 digits States: NSW, VIC, QLD, SA, WA, TAS, NT, ACT

Parsing Strategies by Region

Country Detection

javascript
1function detectCountryFromFormat(address) {
2  // Japanese postal mark
3  if (/〒?\d{3}-?\d{4}/.test(address)) return 'JP';
4
5  // Brazilian CEP
6  if (/\d{5}-\d{3}/.test(address)) return 'BR';
7
8  // UK postcode at end
9  if (/[A-Z]{1,2}\d[A-Z\d]?\s?\d[A-Z]{2}\s*$/i.test(address)) return 'GB';
10
11  // German/French PLZ before city
12  if (/,\s*\d{5}\s+[A-Za-zäöüÄÖÜß]/.test(address)) return 'DE';
13
14  // Default to US
15  return 'US';
16}

Script Detection

javascript
1function detectScript(text) {
2  if (/[\u3040-\u309F\u30A0-\u30FF]/.test(text)) return 'japanese';
3  if (/[\u4E00-\u9FFF]/.test(text)) return 'chinese';
4  if (/[\uAC00-\uD7AF]/.test(text)) return 'korean';
5  if (/[\u0400-\u04FF]/.test(text)) return 'cyrillic';
6  if (/[\u0600-\u06FF]/.test(text)) return 'arabic';
7  return 'latin';
8}

Best Practices

1. Don't assume US format - Support international from day one
2. Store original script - Keep addresses in native characters
3. Add transliteration - Latin version for shipping labels
4. Validate by country - Apply country-specific rules
5. Handle missing components - Not all countries use states