PHP Postcode advice

[Red Eye Media]

Hopefully someone can help.

I'm currently sorting out postcodes and scripts so I can add a radius search function to a directory.
My question is about the format of a UK postcode.
My database has the first part of the postcode and the long / lat etc of that postcode.

If a person enters a postcode, would removing the last 3 digits give me the area code part of the postcode?

An example.
I live in Tunbridge Wells and my postcode is: TN23SG
If someone entered something like : TN227FH which is in Ashford.

Or maybe, there's a better way.

Thanks for your help.

 

[R1chard]

Hi,

Postcode to lat/long:

http://www.freemaptools.com/download-uk-postcode-lat-lng.htm

Some info on getting up and running using PHP/Google geocoding:

http://www.imranulhoque.com/google-...get-latitude-longitude-from-address-postcode/

 

[yorkukhosting]

You may want to try reading the following which I found useful when writing a regex to validate postcode formats:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postcodes_in_the_United_Kingdom

It is wikipedia so usual caveats apply

 

[Red Eye Media]

Maybe I'm being simple here but if I remove the last 3 digits from a postcode, will this produce the outward code for all variations of postcode?

 

[yorkukhosting]

Based on the Wikipedia entry and other sites I read when i was doing some postcode related coding the answer is yes. It is the inward element that can be variable length, between 2 and 4 characters.