[regex] regex for zip-code

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What is the ultimate postal code and zip regex?

I need Regex which can satisfy all my three condtions for zip-code. E.g-

  1. 12345
  2. 12345-6789
  3. 12345 1234

Any pointers and suggestion would be much appreciated. Thanks !

This question is related to regex

The answer is


I know this may be obvious for most people who use RegEx frequently, but in case any readers are new to RegEx, I thought I should point out an observation I made that was helpful for one of my projects.

In a previous answer from @kennytm:

^\d{5}(?:[-\s]\d{4})?$

…? = The pattern before it is optional (for condition 1)

If you want to allow both standard 5 digit and +4 zip codes, this is a great example.

To match only zip codes in the US 'Zip + 4' format as I needed to do (conditions 2 and 3 only), simply remove the last ? so it will always match the last 5 character group.

A useful tool I recommend for tinkering with RegEx is linked below:

https://regexr.com/

I use this tool frequently when I find RegEx that does something similar to what I need, but could be tailored a bit better. It also has a nifty RegEx reference menu and informative interface that keeps you aware of how your changes impact the matches for the sample text you entered.

If I got anything wrong or missed an important piece of information, please correct me.


For the listed three conditions only, these expressions might work also:

^\d{5}[-\s]?(?:\d{4})?$
^\[0-9]{5}[-\s]?(?:[0-9]{4})?$
^\[0-9]{5}[-\s]?(?:\d{4})?$
^\d{5}[-\s]?(?:[0-9]{4})?$

Please see this demo for additional explanation.

If we would have had unexpected additional spaces in between 5 and 4 digits or a continuous 9 digits zip code, such as:

123451234
12345 1234
12345  1234

this expression for instance would be a secondary option with less constraints:

^\d{5}([-]|\s*)?(\d{4})?$

Please see this demo for additional explanation.

RegEx Circuit

jex.im visualizes regular expressions:

enter image description here

Test

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_x000D_
const regex = /^\d{5}[-\s]?(?:\d{4})?$/gm;_x000D_
const str = `12345_x000D_
12345-6789_x000D_
12345 1234_x000D_
123451234_x000D_
12345 1234_x000D_
12345  1234_x000D_
1234512341_x000D_
123451`;_x000D_
let m;_x000D_
_x000D_
while ((m = regex.exec(str)) !== null) {_x000D_
    // This is necessary to avoid infinite loops with zero-width matches_x000D_
    if (m.index === regex.lastIndex) {_x000D_
        regex.lastIndex++;_x000D_
    }_x000D_
    _x000D_
    // The result can be accessed through the `m`-variable._x000D_
    m.forEach((match, groupIndex) => {_x000D_
        console.log(`Found match, group ${groupIndex}: ${match}`);_x000D_
    });_x000D_
}
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