Re: Variable-length Types

Josh,

> Thanks. You're probably right ... reformatting the phone numbers is
> going to be a lot less work than a custom type.

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

(999)_000-00-00

or something like that (no default values) Borland has released their
Turbo stuff for public domain, so it might be worth looking at.
Implementing a generic picture functions (as in PL/I) would probably be
easier and cover more cases. However, watch your back with user-supplied
format strings, there's a plenty of ruined lives at BugTraq :)
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?

--

Well I tried to be meek
And I have tried to be mild
But I spat like a woman
And I sulked like a child
I have lived behind the walls
That have made me alone
Striven for peace
Which I never have known

Dire Straits, Brothers In Arms, The Man's Too Strong (Knopfler)