Type of tel_no with comma “,“ or space or line “-“

Asmaa · #1 (**permalink**) 01-29-12, 12:13

Hi
What is the type of telephone number with comma between the numbers for easy reading?
I don’t want to use “char” for this purpose. Can we do it using integer as its type?
Like 0303-662-2191

Code:

CREATE TABLE Tel
(
Tel_no int    (I don’t want to use char!)
);
INSERT INTO Tel
(
0303-662-2191
);

Thanks in advance

shammat · #2 (**permalink**) 01-29-12, 12:44

No, you have to use varchar if you want to store a formatted telephone number.

Actually there is no other datatype suitable to store a phone number.

Note that char is indeed a bad choice because it is padded to it's length. There is hardly ever a reason to use char over varchar.

loquin · #3 (**permalink**) 02-13-12, 15:06

And in addition, note that a numeric datatype won't work for another reason, as it will not acknowledge leading zeros when entered. (They are dropped.) So, your example of 0303-662-2191, would be stored as 3036622191.

But, you should be able to strip out non-numeric characters using rules or triggers...

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