UK Postcode Implementation

I've been meaning to put this up here ever since the day after my post about regular expressions but time has eluded me until now. I had a stab at coming up with some code for a postcode to save doing the same old checking (or alternatively none at all!) every time; let me know what you think.

	namespace Diuturnal.Utility {
	[Serializable]
	public struct Postcode {
	private const string ValidationString =
	@"^\s*(?<out>[A-Z]{1,2}[0-9R][0-9A-Z]?) *(?<in>[0-9][A-Z-[CIKMOV]]{2})\s*$";
	private static readonly Regex _validator =
	new Regex(ValidationString);
	public static readonly Postcode Empty =
	new Postcode(string.Empty, string.Empty);
	private string _outCode;
	private string _inCode;
	private Postcode(string outCode, string inCode) {
	_outCode = outCode;
	_inCode = inCode;
	}
	public override string ToString() {
	if (0 == _outCode.Length) {
	return string.Empty;
	}
	return _outCode + " " + _inCode;
	}
	public override bool Equals(object obj) {
	if (!(obj is Postcode)) {
	return false;
	}
	return (this == (Postcode) obj);
	}
	public override int GetHashCode() {
	return this.ToString().GetHashCode();
	}
	public static bool operator ==(Postcode lhs, Postcode rhs) {
	return (lhs.ToString() == rhs.ToString());
	}
	public static bool operator !=(Postcode lhs, Postcode rhs) {
	return !(lhs == rhs);
	}
	public static Postcode Parse(string s) {
	if (null == s) {
	throw new ArgumentNullException();
	}
	string capitalised = s.ToUpper();
	if (!_validator.IsMatch(capitalised)) {
	throw new FormatException();
	}
	return new Postcode(_validator.Replace(capitalised, "${out}"),
	_validator.Replace(capitalised, "${in}"));
	}
	public static bool TryParse(string s, out Postcode result) {
	if (null == s) {
	result = Postcode.Empty;
	return false;
	}
	string capitalised = s.ToUpper();
	if (!_validator.IsMatch(capitalised)) {
	result = Postcode.Empty;
	return false;
	}
	result = new Postcode(_validator.Replace(capitalised, "${out}"),
	_validator.Replace(capitalised, "${in}"));
	return true;
	}
	}
	}

view raw Postcode.cs hosted with ❤ by GitHub