regex house address

I want my regex to be able to handle 123 Rock Rd or 444 Blue Bird Ln.

Here is my attempt:

Code:

---

        //accept strings that are in the format of 123 Rock Rd or 444 Blue Bird Ln (not case sensitive)
        public static boolean validateAddr(String address)
        {
                return address.matches("\\d+ \\s+ [a-zA-Z]+ | ([a-zA-Z]+ \\s+ [a-zA-Z]+) \\s+ [a-zA-Z]+");
        }

---

The output keeps generating invalid input when I enter 444 Blue Bird Ln:

Code:

---

       
                        //ask the user for the address until they enter valid input
                        do
                        {
                                System.out.println("Enter the address: ");
                                addr = in.nextLine();
                               
                                if(ValidateInput.validateAddr(addr))
                                        addrbk.setAddress(addr);
                               
                                else
                                        System.out.println("Invalid input. \n");
                        }while(!ValidateInput.validateAddr(addr));

---

The first question to ask is: How does an address look? Does it have any rules aside from it having to start with a number? Does it have to end in "rd" or "ln"? Once you make that definition, making a regex becomes much easier.

Something else to note when dealing with regex is that every character counts. It's not like Java, where you can have any amount of whitespaces without it changing the code. For instance, "X=5" is identical, codewise, to "X = 5". The regex "[A-Za-z] [A-Za-z]" is far from equal to "[A-Za-z] [A-Za-z]".

Quote:

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The regex "[A-Za-z] [A-Za-z]" is far from equal to "[A-Za-z] [A-Za-z]".

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As posted, the two are equal. Maybe you needed to put the regexes in code tags to preserve a difference.

db

Oops. It stole my spaces :( Ahem.
The regex

Code:

---

[A-Za-z] [A-Za-z]

---

is far from equal to

Code:

---

[A-Za-z]    [A-Za-z]

---

Thanks for the tip. Eliminating the gaps (spaces) in my code did the trick. I also had to add more parenthesis. How does Java interpret gaps (spaces) in regex code? Here is my solution:

Code:

---

return address.matches("\\d+\\s+(([a-zA-Z])+|([a-zA-Z]+\\s+[a-zA-Z]+))\\s+[a-zA-Z]*");

---

If there's a space in the regex, Java (and all other languages that I can think of) expects a space in the parsed string as well.