Re: Best way to store/search phone numbers?

Andrew Gould writes:

> I'd use different fields (country code, area code,
> phone number, extension, etc.) and instruct the users
> not to use punctuation.

This will break down once someone from a different area/country tries to
enter his phone number.

You think it won't happen? I have tried to do business with quite a few
places that didn't think my business would happen. (I didn't actually end
up happening, too.)

OTOH, I once did work for an ISP that had a very specific interest in the
breakdown of phone numbers by area code, exchange, and such. I used a
text field with a couple of functional indexes, and it worked well for us.

--
Peter Eisentraut peter_e(at)gmx(dot)net http://funkturm.homeip.net/~peter