System and method for formatting international shipping addresses

• US 20020174148A1
• Filed: 05/18/2001
• Published: 11/21/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 05/18/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Seidman, Benjamin
• Application Number:
  US09/861,153
• Publication Number:
  US 20020174148A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/517
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management

Abstract

An exemplary embodiment of the present invention is a method for formatting international shipping addresses. The method includes receiving a parsed address from a system user and then looking up the parsed address in an index table. A corresponding address format is retrieved from the index table and then the parsed address is reformatted to comply with the retrieved address format. Additional embodiments include a system and storage medium for formatting international shipping addresses.

Claims

1. A method for formatting international shipping addresses, the method comprising:

receiving a parsed address from a user system;

retrieving a corresponding address format by looking up a portion of said parsed address in an index table; and

generating a formatted shipping address by converting said parsed address into said address format.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said parsed address includes a country name field;

and said retrieving a corresponding address format by looking up a portion of said parsed address in an index table comprises looking up said country name field in said index table.

3. The method of claim1 wherein said parsed address includes a country code field;

and said retrieving a corresponding address format by looking up a portion of said parsed address in an index table comprises looking up said country code field in said index table.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein said index table contains at least one entry, each entry comprising a country name and the address format, said address format assigned based on standards from a standards organization.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein said each entry of said index table further comprises a country code.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein said index table contains at least one entry, each entry comprising a country code and the address format, said address format assigned based on standards from a standards organization.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein said index table is manually updated on a periodic basis;

said updating in response to changes to said standards from said standards organization.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein said index table is automatically updated on a periodic basis;

said updating in response to changes in said standards from said standards organization.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein said index table contains at least one entry, each entry comprising a country name and an address format identifier, said address format identifier corresponding to said address format.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein said index table further comprises a country code.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein said index table contains at least one entry, each entry comprising a country name and an address format identifier, said address format identifier corresponding to said address format.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein said parsed address includes a country name field;

and said retrieving a corresponding address format by looking up a portion of said parsed address in an index table comprises looking up said country name field in said index table.

15. The system of claim 12 wherein said index table contains at least one entry, each entry comprising a country name and the address format, said address format assigned based on standards from a standards organization.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein said each entry of said index table further comprises a country code.

17. The system of claim 12 wherein said index table contains at least one entry, each entry comprising a country code and the address format, said address format assigned based on standards from a standards organization.

18. The system of claim 12 wherein said index table is manually updated on a periodic basis;

said updating in response to changes to said standards from said standards organization.

19. The system of claim 12 wherein said index table is automatically updated on a periodic basis;

said updating in response to changes in said standards from said standards organization.

20. The system of claim 12 wherein said index table contains at least one entry, each entry comprising a country name and an address format identifier, said address format identifier corresponding to said address format.

21. The system of claim 20 wherein said index table further comprises a country code.

22. The system of claim 12 wherein said index table contains at least one entry, each entry comprising a country name and an address format identifier, said address format identifier corresponding to said address format.

23. The system of claim 12 further comprising a network providing communication between the host system and the user system.

24. The system of claim 23 wherein said network is an internet, an intranet, a LAN or a WAN.

25. The system of claim 12 further comprising a network providing communication between the storage device and the host system.

27. The system of claim 26 wherein said international shipping address formatting software application is being executed by said user system.

29. The storage medium of claim 28 wherein said parsed address includes a country name field;

and said retrieving a corresponding address format by looking up a portion of said parsed address in an index table comprises looking up said country name field in said index table.

31. The storage medium of claim 28 wherein said index table contains at least one entry, each entry comprising a country name and the address format, said address format assigned based on standards from a standards organization.

32. The storage medium of claim 31 wherein said each entry of said index table further comprises a country code.

33. The storage medium of claim 28 wherein said index table contains at least one entry, each entry comprising a country code and the address format, said address format assigned based on standards from a standards organization.

34. The storage medium of claim 28 wherein said index table is manually updated on a periodic basis;

said updating in response to changes to said standards from said standards organization.

35. The storage medium of claim 28 wherein said index table is automatically updated on a periodic basis;

said updating in response to changes in said standards from said standards organization.

36. The storage medium of claim 28 wherein said index table contains at least one entry, each entry comprising a country name and an address format identifier, said address format identifier corresponding to said address format.

37. The storage medium of claim 36 wherein said index table further comprises a country code.

38. The storage medium of claim 28 wherein said index table contains at least one entry, each entry comprising a country name and an address format identifier, said address format identifier corresponding to said address format.

12. A system for formatting international shipping addresses, the system comprising:

a storage device storing an index table; and

a host system in communication with said storage device, said host system implementing a process comprising;

receiving a parsed address from a user system;

retrieving a corresponding address format by looking up a portion of said parsed address in an index table; and

generating a formatted shipping address by converting said parsed address into said address format.

14. The system of claim12 wherein said parsed address includes a country code field;

and said retrieving a corresponding address format by looking up a portion of said parsed address in an index table comprises looking up said country code field in said index table.

26. A system for formatting international shipping addresses in a communications network environment, comprising:

a host system including a web server, an applications server, and a database server;

at least one data storage device in communication with said host system;

international shipping addresses formatting software application being executed by said host system;

a firewall in communication with said host system;

a user system;

a computer network connecting the host system to the user system;

wherein information inputted into the user system is transferred to the host system and made available to the international shipping address formatting software application.

28. A storage medium encoded with machine-readable computer program code for formatting international shipping addresses, the storage medium storing instructions for causing a host system to implement a method comprising:

receiving a parsed address from a user system;

retrieving a corresponding address format by looking up a portion of said parsed address in an index table; and

generating a formatted shipping address by converting said parsed address into said address format.

30. The storage medium of claim28 wherein said parsed address includes a country code field;

and said retrieving a corresponding address format by looking up a portion of said parsed address in an index table comprises looking up said country code field in said index table.