Best way to represent Spain address in java.

Question

I have coded the below to represent addresses in Spain. Let me know if there are better ways of doing this or if there is already a open source library dealing with i18n addresses.

/**
 * From <a href="http://www.addressdoctor.com/en/countries_data/sampleaddress.asp?code=ESP%2BSpain}"&gt;Address doctor</a>
 * <p>
 * Format
 * </p>
 * 
 * <pre>
 * Line 1:  RECIPIENT
 * Line 2:  [URBANISATION]
 * Line 3:  STREET_TYPE STREET_NAME, HOUSE_NUMBER [FLOOR] [APARTMENT]
 * Line 4:  POSTAL_CODE LOCALITY
 * Line 5:  SPAIN
 * </pre>
 * 
 * Example
 * 
 * <pre>
 * Isidre Varo
 * Avenida de Canillejas a Vicalvaro 82 piso 4
 * 28022 MADRID
 * SPAIN
 * </pre>
 * 
 * @author Aravind R Yarram
 * 
 */
public interface SpainAddress
{
    /**
     * E.g road types would be Calle (Street)
     * <p>
     * TODO may be an enumeration
     * </p>
     */
    String getStreetType();

    String getStreetName();

    String getHouseNumber();

    String getFloorNumber();

    /**
     * <p>
     * TODO need validation
     * </p>
     */
    String getPostalCode();

    /**
     * Poblacion
     */
    String getCity();

    /**
     * Also known as province
     */
    String getLocality();
}

Answer 1

Having lived in Madrid and being fluent in Spanish, I can offer a couple of comments.

I wouldn't separate street type and name, because the street type is often really part of the name, or may be missing (Gran Via, for instance). Any parsing algorithm will either get some wrong or require a huge table of exceptions (and it'll still get some wrong).

Provide a field for the Province, after the Locality. This is deceptive because for large cities the province is often omitted, especially where the city name and province name are the same. Here's an example where the locality and province are different:

Calle Alcala, 45
28192 El Berrueco
Madrid
Spain