[RBASE-L] - Re: Can you insert a blank space in text?

[Marc]

Hi Alastair

I was trying to save work and save the numbers as 9184451555
then in some reports put in ( ) and in others  918 335 1555.
I didn't want to have to strip out the ( ) for the report that I
couldn't have ( ).

That has come back and bit me, so now I am thinking about
storing the numbers 918 335 1555.

I never made the users enter the area code if they didn't want to
in fact I never did in my area if it was the same as mine.  This
"flexibility" will just cause another problem down the road.

thanks for the thoughts
Marc



  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Alastair Burr 
  To: RBASE-L Mailing List 
  Sent: Friday, February 09, 2007 1:07 PM
  Subject: [RBASE-L] - Re: Can you insert a blank space in text?


  Marc, you've had some good suggestions for formatting your telephone numbers 
but, maybe, you need to take a further step back and consider how you want to 
store them:

  Because they're telephone _numbers_ it is natural to think of then as numbers 
rather than as text in the first place.

  Here, in the UK, there seems to be a few attempts to use characters in some 
numbers - I would hardly call it a trend yet. Should that sort of thing catch 
on you may find storing text is easier.

  Then again, the numbers seem to get longer as the years go by and numbers get 
used up. If they just stick a zero in front of all current ones then you have a 
problem if you're not storing as text. If, as they did with London number a few 
years back, they change some codes you may not be able to easily update your 
data...

  One way to cope might be to store your numbers as text with a comma between 
area code and number. You might even want to include an international code as 
well separated by another comma. When you use your data you can then use SRPL 
to replace the comma(s) with a space or SSUB to extract the components 
(assuming your delimiter character is a comma). You could even store the 
components in reverse order and extract them in reverse order so that you don't 
store something like: ,123,4567 but have: 4567,123 or 4567,123,44 instead. All 
it takes is a slightly longer variable definition or two on your forms and 
reports. You might also want to verify area codes which then becomes easy(ier).

  Of course, if you've only got a small number of telephone numbers you've 
already got your solution and you can just hit the delete button on this.

  Good luck,
  Regards,
  Alastair.


    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: Marc 
    To: RBASE-L Mailing List 
    Sent: Friday, February 09, 2007 4:40 PM
    Subject: [RBASE-L] - Can you insert a blank space in text?


    Hi

    I store my phone numbers like
    9183351555
    9183352225

    I am thinking about using a format in forms like this
    918 335 1555
    But If I change the format to that the phone numbers do not
    display correctly, I guess because they are stored 9183351555

    So, how do you update the phone numbers to add the proper spaces?
    And if some of the numbers are 3352244 without the 918 would that
    mess things up?

    Thanks
    Marc