The differences between Faker's streetAddress and streetName methods lie primarily in what they each generate and the intended use cases for these methods.
The streetAddress method generates a random, localized full street address. This typically includes a building number combined with a street name and may include additional components such as apartment or suite numbers if the option to generate a "full address" is enabled. For example, calling the streetAddress method can yield outputs like "5786 Roselyn Throughway" or, when requesting a full address, "3393 Ronny Way Apt. 742". The method usually includes a parameter (often named useFullAddress or include_secondary) to specify whether to produce just the street address or a more detailed full address including secondary address information. This makes streetAddress suitable for situations where you need a complete address string for purposes such as testing applications that require full addresses or generating datasets that simulate real-world postal addresses.
On the other hand, the streetName method focuses solely on generating just the street name part of an address, without any building number or additional elements. This method will output a string that represents a street name, such as "Michale Orchard" or "Kulas Roads". The streetName is ideal for scenarios where only the street name is necessaryâfor example, populating dropdown menus, lists, or forms where a full address is not required. It is worth noting that in recent versions of Faker, particularly from version 8.0.0 onwards, the streetName method is considered deprecated. Users are encouraged to use faker.location.street() for generating street names instead, as this aligns with newer module naming conventions and structures.
Technically, streetAddress aggregates multiple address componentsâmost notably a building number and a street nameâand optionally a secondary address unit like an apartment or suite number. Internally, it retrieves a building number and combines it with a generated street name and potentially additional address parts depending on the requested detail level. Meanwhile, streetName strictly returns a street segment without numeric prefixes or suffixes.
From the perspective of locale and localization, there have been indications in issues reported on the Faker project repositories that the streetName might not always use fully localized data correctly in every locale, sometimes falling back to English-based names rather than localized street roots or names. This limitation primarily affects the streetName method rather than streetAddress, as the latter's combination of components may allow better overall localized realism.
To summarize the usage distinction: use streetAddress when a complete address string is needed for testing, UI population, or data generation that mimics full mailing addresses. Use streetName when only the street name itself is needed, such as for simpler data fields, partial address inputs, or UI elements where the complexity of a full address is unnecessary. Future-proofing usage would also involve switching to faker.location.street() instead of streetName, especially if adopting newer versions of the Faker library.