/ 
Geo-UK-Postcode-0.006
River stage zero No dependents
/ Geo::UK::Postcode

NAME

Geo::UK::Postcode - Object and class methods for working with British postcodes.

VERSION

version 0.006

SYNOPSIS

# See Geo::UK::Postcode::Regex for parsing/matching postcodes

use Geo::UK::Postcode;

my $pc = Geo::UK::Postcode->new( "wc1h9eb" );

$pc->raw;            # wc1h9eb - as entered
$pc->as_string;      # WC1H 9EB - output in correct format
"$pc";               # stringifies, same output as '->as_string'
$pc->fixed_format;   # 8 characters, the incode always last three

$pc->area;           # WC
$pc->district;       # 1
$pc->subdistrict;    # H
$pc->sector;         # 9
$pc->unit;           # EB

$pc->outcode;        # WC1H
$pc->incode;         # 9EB

$pc->strict;     # true if matches strict regex
$pc->valid;      # true if matches strict regex and has a valid outcode
$pc->partial;    # true if postcode is for a district or sector only

$pc->non_geographical;    # true if outcode is known to be
                          # non-geographical

# Sort Postcode objects:
use Geo::UK::Postcode qw/ pc_sort /;

my @sorted_pcs = sort pc_sort @unsorted_pcs;

DESCRIPTION

An object to represent a British postcode.

For matching and parsing postcodes in a non-OO manner (for form validation, for example), see Geo::UK::Postcode::Regex

For geo-location (finding latitude and longitude) see "GEO-LOCATING POSTCODES".

Currently undef development - feedback welcome. Basic API unlikely to change greatly, just more features/more postcodes supported - see "TODO" list.

METHODS

raw

Returns exact string that the object was constructed from.

as_string

$pc->as_string;

# or:

"$pc";

Stringification of postcode object, returns postcode with a single space between outcode and incode.

fixed_format

my $fixed_format = $postcode->fixed_format;

Returns the full postcode in a fixed length (8 character) format, with extra padding spaces inserted as necessary.

area, district, subdistrict, sector, unit

Return the corresponding part of the postcode, undef if not present.

outcode

The first half of the postcode, before the space - comprises of the area and district.

incode

The second half of the postcode, after the space - comprises of the sector and unit. Returns an empty string if not present.

outward, inward

Aliases for outcode and incode.

valid

if ($pc->valid) {
  ...
}

Returns true if postcode has valid outcode and matches strict regex.

partial

if ($pc->partial) {
  ...
}

Returns true if postcode is not a full postcode, either a postcode district ( e . g . AB10 ) or postcode sector (e.g. AB10 1).

strict

if ($pc->strict) {
  ...
}

Returns true if postcode matches strict regex, meaning all characters are valid ( although postcode might not exist ) .

non_geographical

if ($pc->non_geographical) {
  ...
}

Returns true if the outcode is known to be non-geographical. Note that geographical outcodes may have non-geographical postcodes within them.

(Non-geographical postcodes are used for PO Boxes, or organisations receiving large amounts of post).

bfpo

if ($pc->bfpo) {
    ...
}

Returns true if postcode is mapped to a BFPO number (British Forces Post Office).

posttowns

my (@posttowns) = $postcode->posttowns;

Returns list of one or more posttowns that this postcode is assigned to.

EXPORTABLE

pc_sort

my @sorted_pcs = sort pc_sort @unsorted_pcs;

Exportable sort function, sorts postcode objects in a useful manner. The sort is in the following order: area, district, subdistrict, sector, unit (ascending alphabetical or numerical order as appropriate).

GEO-LOCATING POSTCODES

Postcodes can be geolocated by obtaining the Ordnance Survey 'Code-Point' data (or the free 'Code-Point Open' data).

For full details of using this class with Code-Point data, see: Geo::UK::Postcode::Manual::Geolocation.

SEE ALSO

TODO

Finalise API
Handle non-geographic postcodes
Handle British overseas territories
Handle special case postcodes, like GIR 0AA and SAN TA1
Find out which BX non-geographical districts are used.
handle BFPO
cleanup method to correct common errors

SUPPORT

Bugs / Feature Requests

Please report any bugs or feature requests through the issue tracker at https://github.com/mjemmeson/geo-uk-postcode/issues. You will be notified automatically of any progress on your issue.

Source Code

This is open source software. The code repository is available for public review and contribution under the terms of the license.

https://github.com/mjemmeson/geo-uk-postcode

git clone git://github.com/mjemmeson/geo-uk-postcode.git

AUTHOR

Michael Jemmeson <mjemmeson@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This software is copyright (c) 2013 by Michael Jemmeson <mjemmeson@cpan.org>.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.