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Re: Phone numbers / Was: Postal address layouts?
From: |
Pascal J . Bourguignon |
Subject: |
Re: Phone numbers / Was: Postal address layouts? |
Date: |
Sat, 6 Sep 2003 08:02:41 +0200 |
David Wetzel writes:
> Hi,
>
> each address should have a format. The format may be different in
> each country. A good application could have bundles or format
> defines for each country.
A better one would leave it to the user.
Even if the postal administration of a given country has a norm about
it, sometimes it's better to let the recipient write and format his
own address. For example, where I live, there is no number, in a
street that is 20 km long! The buildings are identified by names, and
of course, there are several buildings with the same name (some belong
to a differently named "building group"). For current mail, I've set
up a postal address, but for deliveries, there's a need for
additionnal routing information, and I can say that I'm yet to find an
eCommerce site where I can write my full address AND find it
transcribed entirely on the packages. Happily, with GSM phones, now
the delivery man can call to get the final instruction once he's lost
arround here...
> Telefone numbers are also an issue. The Germans write
>
> (03 30 56) 8 28 34
> in France this would be
> 033.05.68.28.34 (I am not sure about the zero)
> US numbers are like that:
> 033-056-828-34
>
> you should store it as +49 33056 82834.
> There is a parser for phone numbers on Lutz Donnerhacke's home page.
Yes, phones are a mess too. But there is one format that is absolute:
the international format. Write a '+' to denote it, write the
"country" code, and write the digits needed after the "country" code.
Locally, people will know what digits to remove and what digits to
add, starting from the internationnal phone number.
Why the digits inside the parenthesis don't belong to the phone
number? For example, in France, that would be: (0)xxx yyy zzz. The
international number would be: +33 xxx yyy zzz. Most people in France
would compose 0 xxx yyy zzz, but the '0' is actually a quirk from the
main operator, it's the digit to get out of it. Numbers starting with
a different digit are internal services specific to this operator.
Some other operators use the digit '7' to get out of them so the
number would become 7 xxx yyy zzz. In Spain, they don't have such
schenanigans: +34 xxx yyy zzz, and you compose directly xxx yyy zzz
with the main operators, (or something like 0tttt xxx yyy zzz when you
want to select another operator): these digits and their presence
depends on from where or from which operator or thru which operator
you call.
Finally, the ITU has a norm which specifies that phone numbers are
stored on 28 digits: 21 for the phone number and 7 for the phone
extension (in ISDN for example). If you write the '*' to separate the
phone number from the extension, you need 29 characters, and that's
it: a phone number is a sequence of 29 characters, usually just digits
and one '*'. Same as with the postal address, unless you're writting
a telephone exchange, you don't mess with them.
--
__Pascal_Bourguignon__ http://www.informatimago.com/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Do not adjust your mind, there is a fault in reality.
Re: Postal address layouts?, reuss, 2003/09/05
Re: Postal address layouts?, David Wetzel, 2003/09/05
Re: Postal address layouts?, Yen-Ju Chen, 2003/09/06
Re: Postal address layouts?, David Wetzel, 2003/09/06