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.

> 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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