PO Box Regular Expression Validation

Question

Here\'s my code, but I can\'t ever trigger the alert.

$(document).ready( function (){
    $(\"[id*=\'txtAddress1S\']\").blur(function() {
        var pattern         


        

Answer 1

We ran into false positive PO Boxes after using @Dathan's answer in production for a few months. This simplified version ensures the pattern is followed by a number so won't match things like "Expo Blvd". It also allows things like "#123" and "B1" commonly found in address2 fields for apartment/unit/suite numbers. You can play around with it and add your own test cases here: https://regex101.com/r/7ZUQFl/2

const re = /^\s*(.*((p|post)[-.\s]*(o|off|office)[-.\s]*(b|box|bin)[-.\s]*)|.*((p|post)[-.\s]*(o|off|office)[-.\s]*)|.*((p|post)[-.\s]*(b|box|bin)[-.\s]*)|(box|bin)[-.\s]*)(#|n|num|number)?\s*\d+/i;
const matches = [
  "post office box 1",
  "post office b 1",
  "post off box 1",
  "post off b 1",
  "post o box 1",
  "post o b 1",
  "p office box 1",
  "p office b 1",
  "p off box 1",
  "p off b 1",
  "p o box 1",
  "p-o-b-1",
  "p.o.b.1",
  "POB1",
  "pob #1",
  "pob num1",
  "pob number1",
  "foo pob1",
  "box #1",
  "po 1",
  "pb 1"
];
const nonMatches = [ 
  "Expo Blvd",
  "Rural Route Box 1",
  "Army Post 1",
  "B1",
  "#1",
  "N1",
  "Number 1",
  "Num 1"
];