Re: Variable-length Types

> KuroiNeko,
>
> > I remember from the old days of Delphi/InterBase, and even older days of
> > Paradox, there were so called input masks, US phone code mask would be like
>
> Input masks still exist for some languages (VB, Paradox) but I've found
> that even in those platforms that support them I tend to replace them
> with custom functions, because actually using them is too buggy.

You can use CHECK column constraints to enforce this using regular
expressions in the CHECK.

>
> > I'm just not sure what to do if 8 or 9 digits are supplied? Maybe, reject,
> > assuming that such things should be caught by UI, and if we get such a
> > weird thing, there's something really really wrong?
>
> Or, if you're using an interface that doesn't readily support entry
> validation (e.g. PHP) then you can nest functions and have the "Save"
> button test for a reply indicating that something's wrong.
>
> To wit:
>
> Create Function save_candidate (Lots of candidate data variables)
> RETURNS VARCHAR (100)
> AS
> Declare output_string VARCHAR(100)
> Do a whole bunch of stuff
> SELECT first_phone = phoneformat(first_phone)
> IF first_phone = 'fail' (
> SELECT output_string = 'Bad phone number for Primary Phone'
> RETURN output_string
> )
> More code
>
> -Josh
>
> --
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