Re: Best way to store/search phone numbers?

My 2 cents:  Concatenating data is easier than
extracting data from a larger element.

I'd use different fields (country code, area code,
phone number, extension, etc.) and instruct the users
not to use punctuation.  The data will (hopefully) be
a little cleaner; and easier to use.  Then, if you
want it all in one field, use an update query to
concatenate the values with formatting characters into
a separate field for easy reporting/printing.

Best of luck,

Andrew

--- Raise Exception <raiseexception@yahoo.com> wrote:
> I am doing a standard company info database, with
> phone numbers, and I
> was wondering if there was a general concensus about
> the best way to
> store phone numbers.  My problem is multiple users
> will be entering in
> data via a web browser (PHP backend), and the
> formatting may not be
> the same in all cases.  I'm not sure if I should
> store some sort of
> standard formatting in a plain text field (e.g.,
> "(555) 555-5555") or
> strip out all the punctuation characters.  There is
> also the option of
> storing the parts in different columns, but that
> seems a bit overkill
> (but would make searching possibly faster).
>
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