We have a column for street addresses:
123 Maple Rd.
321 1st Ave.
etc…
Is there any way to match these addresses to a given input? The input would be a street address, but it might not be in the same format. For example:
123 Maple Road
321 1st Avenue
Our first thought is to strip the input of all street terms (rd, st, ave, blvd, etc).
Obviously that won’t match reliably all the time. Are there any other ways to try to match street addresses in SQL server?
We can use user defined functions, stored procs and regular old t-sql. We cannot use clr.
In order to do proper street address matching, you need to get your addresses into a standardized form. Have a look at the USPS postal standards here (I’m asssuming you’re dealing with US addresses). It is by no means an easy process if you want to be able to deal with ALL types of US mail addresses. There is software available from companies like QAS and Satori Software that you can use to do the standardization for you. You’ll need to export your addresses, run them through the software and then load the database with the updated addresses. There are also third party vendors that will perform the address standardization as well. It may be overkill for what you are trying to do but it’s the best way to do it. if the addresses in your database are standardized you’ll have a better chance of matching them (especially if you can standardize the input as well).