Separate Address number and name

[Ben Finney]

Shane Konings <shane.konings at gmail.com> writes:

> I have the following sample from a data set and I am looking to split
> the address number and name into separate headings as seen below.
>
> FarmID	Address
> 1	1067 Niagara Stone
> 2	4260 Mountainview
> 3	25 Hunter
> 4	1091 Hutchinson
> 5	5172 Green Lane
> 6	500 Glenridge
> 7	471 Foss
> 8	758 Niagara Stone
> 9	3836 Main
> 10	1025 York

If it is *always* the case that you just want to split the string on the
first space (' ', U+0020) character, then this will do the job:

    >>> street_address = "1067 Niagara Stone"
    >>> (street_number, street_name) = street_address.split(' ', 1)
    >>> street_number
    '1067'
    >>> street_name
    'Niagara Stone'

But that's a very dubious assumption. Are you sure your data contains no
examples like:

    PO Box 27
    Unit 6, 52 Watford Avenue
    Lot D property 107 Sandusky Road

etc.? What is your policy for dealing with data which isn't structured
as you assume?

-- 
 \         “All my life I've had one dream: to achieve my many goals.” |
  `\                                            —Homer, _The Simpsons_ |
_o__)                                                                  |
Ben Finney