Re: Storing Telephone Numbers

In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
(Simon Verona) wrote:

> A quick search on the internet, Microsoft has some guidelines at :
> http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/getwr/steps/wrg_telnum.mspx
> 
> It's not that helpful but it's a start I spose!
> 
> Regards
> Simon
> 
> From: "CWNoah2" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Subject: Re: Storing Telephone Numbers
> Date: 29 November 2003 12:45
> 
> Is there a table anywhere of different country formats which could be 
> used
> with
> country code to provide output formatting of stored raw numbers?
> 
> Regards,
> Charlie Noah
> 
> Kevin Powick <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> 
> >[EMAIL PROTECTED] says...
> >
> >> How many of you store
> >> phone numbers as a 7 or 10 digit number (string) and then format the
> number
> >> for display or how many store the formatted number
> >
> >I generally designate fields for country code, city/area code, local
> >number, and extension.  This probably covers most situations and allows
> >you to assemble/format the output as you see fit.  MS Outlook uses this
> >approach (minus the extension field) and I think it works pretty well.
> >
> >I don't force formatting because many international numbers don't
> >follow a North American (nnn) nnn-nnnn format.  However, the only field
> >that I allow non-numerics (dash, dot, and space) is the local number.
> >-- 
> >Kevin Powick
> 
> 
> Charlie Noah ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
> 
> 
And the 1st example for the UK is wrong.

I have most of this information as part of the Global Gazetteer. Problem 
is that telephone numbers are much less standardised than postcodes, even 
within a country. Even different parts of the national telecoms agency 
will give different layouts sometimes. Let alone the way in which people 
/actually/ write the numbers.

Most countries other than NANP ones, have very variable length subfields.
Best wishes
Alan Pritchard
The GLOBAL GAZETTEER™: the world on file
http://www.allm-geodata.com
Tel: +44 (0) 1202 417 477