algorithmiaio/pypostal

Python bindings to libpostal for fast international address parsing/normalization

pypostal

These are the official Python bindings to https://github.com/openvenues/libpostal, a fast statistical parser/normalizer for street addresses anywhere in the world.

Usage

from postal.expand import expand_address
expand_address('Quatre vingt douze Ave des Champs-Élysées')

from postal.parser import parse_address
parse_address('The Book Club 100-106 Leonard St, Shoreditch, London, Greater London, EC2A 4RH, United Kingdom')

Installation

Before using the Python bindings, you must install the libpostal C library. Make sure you have the following prerequisites:

On Ubuntu/Debian

sudo apt-get install curl autoconf automake libtool python-dev pkg-config

On CentOS/RHEL

sudo yum install curl autoconf automake libtool python-devel pkgconfig

On Mac OSX

brew install curl autoconf automake libtool pkg-config

Installing libpostal

git clone https://github.com/openvenues/libpostal
cd libpostal
./bootstrap.sh
./configure --datadir=[...some dir with a few GB of space...]
make
sudo make install

# On Linux it's probably a good idea to run
sudo ldconfig

To install the Python library, just run:

pip install postal

Compatibility

pypostal supports Python 2.7+ and Python 3.4+. These bindings are written using the Python C API and thus support CPython only. Since libpostal is a standalone C library, support for PyPy is still possible with a CFFI wrapper, but is not a goal for this repo.

Tests

Make sure you have nose installed, then run:

python setup.py build_ext --inplace
nosetests postal/tests

The build_ext --inplace business is needed so the C extensions build in the source checkout directory and are accessible/importalbe by the Python modules.