private function FormatUKPhoneNumber(PhoneNumber as string) as string
FormatUKPhoneNumber = PhoneNumber 'set up our default return state
'first lets assume the worst and strip out any existing punctuation
PhoneNumber = replace(PhoneNumber," ","") 'strip out any spaces in the supplied data.....
PhoneNumber = replace(PhoneNumber,"(","") 
PhoneNumber = replace(PhoneNumber,")","") 
PhoneNumber = replace(PhoneNumber,"+","")
if not isnumber(PhoneNumber) then 'the supplied number has some other invalid characters
'can't be arsed to find out what it is just pump back what was supplied
else
  'a uk phonenumber has 11 digits
  if length (phonenumber) <>11 then
    'hokay options are 'it can be 10 digits if the leading 0 is supressed
    'all UK numbers start 0x where x is a digit 1..9
    if left(PhoneNumber <> "0") then
      FormatUKPhoneNumber = FormatUKPhoneNumber(PhoneNumber)
    else ' pump back what was supplied
    endif
  endif
  if left(ThisPhoneNumber,2) = "02" then
    FormatUKPhoneNumber = "(" & left(ThisPhoneNumber,3) & ") " & mid(ThisPhoneNumber, 3,4) & " " & right(ThisPhoneNumber,6)
else 'then its a simple number std code (5 digits) + 6 digits
    FormatUKPhoneNumber = "(" & left(ThisPhoneNumber,5) & ") " & right(ThisPhoneNumber,6)
  endif
endif
end function