string validation

[Erich Schulman]

A list of state abbreviations is at http://www.usps.com/ncsc/lookups/abbr_state.txt
Assuming it has already been checked for a length of 2, what would be the most efficient way of checking that a string is a valid state abbreviation?

[Paul Squires]

Put the abbreviations in an array and do a binary search on it, or, put all of the abbreviations in a string and do an INSTR search. For example:

sAllStates = " AL AK AS AZ AR CA"  '..... etc...

If Instr( sAllStates, $Spc & sLookFor ) Then
   ' the state abbreviation was found. Do something here.
Else
   ' Not found. Weep openly.
End If

[Mel Bishop]

Put all the state abbreviations in a long string with some kind of separator, (space, comma, whatever) and use INSTR?

Well, Paul and I posted at the same time.

[Fred Buffington]

Put all the state abbrev in a string (be sure they are all correct and 2 characters each).

Do an instr for checking and compare the position. If it is odd, it is ok, if even,
check again. If 0, it is bad.

#COMPILE EXE
'#DIM ALL

FUNCTION PBMAIN () AS LONG
statest$="ALAKAZARCACOCTDEFLGAHIIDILINIAKSKYLAMEMDMAMIMNMSMOMTNENVNHNJNMNYNCNDOHOKORPARISCSDTNTXUTVTVAWAWVWIWY"
PRINT "len(statest$)= ";LEN(statest$)
L%=INSTR(statest$,"OK")
IF L% MOD 2=1 THEN ok%=1 :showstate%=L% ELSE ok%=0
IF L%<>0 AND L% MOD 2=0 THEN
 M%=INSTR( L%+1,statest$,"OK")
 IF M% MOD 2=1 THEN OK%=1:showstate%=M%
 IF M%=0 THEN ok%=0
END IF
PRINT "OK%= ";ok%

IF OK% THEN
  SELECT CASE showstate%
    CASE 1
      PRINT "ALABAMA  AL"
    CASE 3
      PRINT "ALASKA   AK"
    CASE 5
      PRINT "ARIZONA  AZ"
    CASE 7
      PRINT "ARKANSAS AR"
    CASE 9
      PRINT "CALIFORNIA  CA"
    CASE 11
      PRINT "COLORADO CO"
    CASE 13
      PRINT "CONNECTICUT CT"
    CASE 15
      PRINT "DELAWARE  DE"
    CASE 17
      PRINT "FLORIDA   FL"
    CASE 19
      PRINT "GEORGIA   GA"
    CASE 21
      PRINT "HAWAII  HI"
    CASE 23
      PRINT "IDAHO ID"
    CASE 25
      PRINT "ILLINOIS  IL"
    CASE 27
      PRINT "INDIANA  IN"
    CASE 29
      PRINT "IOWA  IA"
    CASE 31
      PRINT "KANSAS   KS"
    CASE 33
      PRINT "KENTUCKY  KY"
    CASE 35
      PRINT "LOUISIANA  LA"
    CASE 37
      PRINT "MAINE  ME"
    CASE 39
      PRINT "MARYLAND MD"
    CASE 41
      PRINT "MASSACHUSETTS MA"
    CASE 43
      PRINT "MICHIGAN MI"
    CASE 45
      PRINT "MINNESOTA MN"
    CASE 47
      PRINT "MISSISSIPPI MS"
    CASE 49
      PRINT "MISSOURI MO"
    CASE 51
      PRINT "MONTANA MT"
    CASE 53
      PRINT "NEBRASKA NE"
    CASE 55
      PRINT "NEVADA NV"
    CASE 57
      PRINT "NEW HAMPSHIRE NH"
    CASE 59
      PRINT "NEW JERSEY NJ"
    CASE 61
      PRINT "NEW MEXICO NM"
    CASE 63
      PRINT "NEW YORK NY"
    CASE 65
      PRINT "NORTH CAROLINA NC"
    CASE 67
      PRINT "NORTH DAKOTA ND"
    CASE 69
      PRINT "OHIO OH"
    CASE 71
      PRINT "OKLAHOMA OK"
    CASE 73
      PRINT "OREGON OR"
    CASE 75
      PRINT "PENNSYLVANIA PA"
    CASE 77
      PRINT "RHODE ISLAND RI"
    CASE 79
      PRINT "SOUTH CAROLINA SC"
    CASE 81
      PRINT "SOUTH DAKOTA SD"
    CASE 83
      PRINT "TENNESSEE TN"
    CASE 85
      PRINT "TEXAS TX"
    CASE 87
      PRINT "UTAH UT"
    CASE 89
      PRINT "VERMONT VT"
    CASE 91
      PRINT "VIRGINIA VA"
    CASE 93
      PRINT "WASHINGTON WA"
    CASE 95
      PRINT "WEST VIRGINIA WV"
    CASE 97
      PRINT "WISCONSIN WI"
    CASE 99
      PRINT "WYOMING WY"
  END SELECT
END IF
WAITKEY$


END FUNCTION

[John Gleason]

Also you may want to account for capitalization and the non-50-state codes:

#COMPILE EXE
#DIM ALL

FUNCTION PBMAIN () AS LONG
    LOCAL validStates, stateStr AS STRING
    
    validStates = " AL AK AS AZ AR CA CO CT DE DC FM FL GA GU HI ID IL IN IA KS KY LA ME MH MD MA MI MN MS MO MT NE" & _
                  " NV NH NJ NM NY NC ND MP OH OK OR PW PA PR RI SC SD TN TX UT VT VI VA WA WV WI WY AE AA AE AE AE AP"
    stateStr = "ne"
    stateStr = " " & UCASE$(stateStr)
    
    IF INSTR(validStates, stateStr) THEN
       ? stateStr & " is a valid state abbreviation"
    ELSE
       ? stateStr & " is NOT a valid state abbreviation"
    END IF
END FUNCTION

[Michael Mattias]

REDIM TheStates (49)
FOR Z = 0 To 49
  TheStates(Z) = READ$(Z+1)
NEXT

  StateToTest = "XX"

  ARRAY SCAN TheStates(), = StateToTest,to iHit
  IF ISFALSE iHit THEN
    MSGBOX "Invalid State.."



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