thanks a lot cfajohnson
But do you think sub( / [A-Z][A-Z].*/,"",left) is prone to unintentionally pick up patterns for example in street names, rather than in zip.
Is there a possible way to make it into sub(/ [two letter patern in the list.[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]/,"",left)
list="AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA,
HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD,
MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ,
NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC,
SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY"
thanks