ZIP code regex Python

ZIP code (US postal code) regular expression can be used to verify if a given string contains a valid ZIP code or extract ZIP code from a string. Supports both 5-digit and 9-digit (ZIP+4) formats.

ZIP code regex

A regular expression to test a string against ZIP code format:

"^[0-9]{5}(?:-[0-9]{4})?$"

Test it!

/^[0-9]{5}(?:-[0-9]{4})?$/

True

False

Enter a text in the input above to see the result

Example code in Python:

import re

# Validate ZIP code
words_pattern = "^[0-9]{5}(?:-[0-9]{4})?$"
re.match(words_pattern, '80001') # Returns Match object
re.match(words_pattern, '80001-2222') # Returns Match object
re.match(words_pattern, '800010') # Returns None

# Extract ZIP code from a string
words_extract_pattern = "[0-9]{5}(?:-[0-9]{4})?"
re.findall(words_extract_pattern, 'My zip code is 80001') # returns ['80001']

Test it!

True

False

Enter a text in the input above to see the result

Test it!

True

False

Enter a text in the input above to see the result

Notes on ZIP code validation and extraction

This ZIP code regex has several limitations:

It only works for US ZIP codes. If you need to support other countries, you might need to have a separate regular expression for each one of them and execute it based on the country provided.
It can not guarantee that ZIP code actually exists. For instance, 99999 is a correct format, but this ZIP code does not exist.
The extraction method can generate false-positive extraction if a string contains multiple numbers.

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