UK Postcode Parsing

UK Postcode Parse

function parsePostcode2($postcode) {
    $postcode = preg_replace('/\s*/','',strtoupper($postcode));

    $sector = substr($postcode,0,-2);
    $outcode = $district = substr($sector,0,-1);

    list($area) = sscanf($district,'%[A-Z]');
    $incode = substr($postcode,-3);

    return array( 
        'area'      => $area,
        'district'  => $district,
        'sector'    => $sector,
        'outcode'   => $outcode,
        'incode'    => $incode,
        'formatted' => $outcode.' '.$incode
    );
}