How to auto retrieve the address,state, zipcode from an address and save in database

I was facing the same problem before and couldn't find a solution. You could use the PHP explode() function to split the address entered into pieces after each comma. The main issue is, that Google's auto complete doesn't add a post code and state by default. In fact if I type in "University of Liverpool" it will only auto complete to "University of Liverpool, Liverpool" (thats from within the UK, if you use google maps outside the UK it might add the country at the end, but no post code).

Another problem I was facing was, that the address format is different for different countries, for example in Germany the format is Street, Post Code, City, Country (another example: What happens if there are two address lines instead of one, that are comma separated?). Therefore it is almost impossible to split it up and import it into the database correctly.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I found it to be easier to just have separate fields for all parts of the address, as everything I tried to resolve the problem caused wrong database entries (e.g. country name was inside the post code column and country column was empty).

Don't get me wrong: it's a great feature if you want to look for an address and show it on a google map, but otherwise I would suggest using a regular form.