(the german term is "Postleitzahl", usually abbreviated as PLZ) Considering this and all the other issues related to addresses, I really wonder why we are stil

(the german term is "Postleitzahl", usually abbreviated as PLZ) Considering this and all the other issues related to addresses, I really wonder why we are still trying to store them in separated fields. Why can't the address just be one big multiline text field where the user types whatever would be needed to receive a postal letter? If we need the data in structured form, we could always write a locale-aware parser that extracts the needed information. Splitting the address in multiple fields (sometimes even labelled address_line_1, address_line_2 and so on) is probably a relic from the times where databases had nothing but CHAR (with a maximum length of 100 or something) and where applications were created for the local market only. I would need to do some a/b testing, but I really doubt that it'll be easier for a user to fill out the traditional Street 1: _______________ Street 2: _______________ ZIP: _____ City: _____________ form instead of just one big text field labelled "Postal Address" - personally, I'd probably be WAY faster filling out that one.