PostCode Validator

Zend\I18n\Validator\PostCode allows you to determine if a given value is a valid postal code. Postal codes are specific to cities, and in some locales termed ZIP codes.

Zend\I18n\Validator\PostCode knows more than 160 different postal code formats. To select the correct format there are 2 ways. You can either use a fully qualified locale or you can set your own format manually.

Using a locale is more convenient as Zend Framework already knows the appropriate postal code format for each locale; however, you need to use the fully qualified locale (one containing a region specifier) to do so. For instance, the locale “de” is a locale but could not be used with Zend\I18n\Validator\PostCode as it does not include the region; “de_AT”, however, would be a valid locale, as it specifies the region code (“AT”, for Austria).

$validator = new Zend\I18n\Validator\PostCode('de_AT');

When you don’t set a locale yourself, then Zend\I18n\Validator\PostCode will use the application wide set locale, or, when there is none, the locale returned by Locale.

// application wide locale within your bootstrap
Locale::setDefault('de_AT');

$validator = new Zend\I18n\Validator\PostCode();

You can also change the locale afterwards by calling setLocale(). And of course you can get the actual used locale by calling getLocale().

$validator = new Zend\I18n\Validator\PostCode('de_AT');
$validator->setLocale('en_GB');

Postal code formats are simply regular expression strings. When the international postal code format, which is used by setting the locale, does not fit your needs, then you can also manually set a format by calling setFormat().

$validator = new Zend\I18n\Validator\PostCode('de_AT');
$validator->setFormat('AT-\d{5}');

Note

Conventions for self defined formats

When using self defined formats you should omit the starting ('/^') and ending tags ('$/'). They are attached automatically.

You should also be aware that postcode values are always be validated in a strict way. This means that they have to be written standalone without additional characters when they are not covered by the format.

Constructor options

At it’s most basic, you may pass a string representing a fully qualified locale to the constructor of Zend\I18n\Validator\PostCode.

$validator = new Zend\I18n\Validator\PostCode('de_AT');
$validator = new Zend\I18n\Validator\PostCode($locale);

Additionally, you may pass either an array or a Traversable instance to the constructor. When you do so, you must include either the key “locale” or “format”; these will be used to set the appropriate values in the validator object.

$validator = new Zend\I18n\Validator\PostCode(array(
    'locale' => 'de_AT',
    'format' => 'AT_\d+'
));

Supported options for Zend\Validator\PostCode

The following options are supported for Zend\I18n\Validator\PostCode:

• format: Sets a postcode format which will be used for validation of the input.
• locale: Sets a locale from which the postcode will be taken from.