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Phone_dash - format phone numbers.

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    Phone_dash - format phone numbers.

    The routine can be used as-is to format numbers as:
    234-5678 or 234-567-8900
    regardless of how the user enters the number.

    This method allows the user to type numbers any way they wish (they'll usually do it with no special characters at all because that's the fastest way) or to copy and paste numbers from some other source with needing to 'fix' them first.

    It can be modified to create any format you prefer. One modification I made was to create a version that uses parenthesis around the area code.

    Code:
    FUNCTION Phone_dash AS C (Phone_in AS C )
        'Description:Adds dashes to phone numbers as necessary and removes leading "1"s.  Assumes 333-444-1234 output format will always be valid.
        DIM phone_w as C
        phone_w = remspecial( phone_in ) 'Define the 'working' number.
    
        IF phone_w = ""
            Phone_dash = phone_w
            EXIT FUNCTION 
        END IF
    
        'Assume any number beginning with 01 is international and leave it as-is.
        IF left(phone_w,2)="01"
            Phone_dash = Phone_in
            EXIT FUNCTION
        END IF
    
        'Remove any leading 1 that might be for long distance.
        'Left the ability to start an area code or exchange with "1" because of a
        '   conversion routine I use to "encrypt" phone numbers. (Although, it would be
        '   better to change the "encryption" too so all beginning 1s becomes 2s...)
        IF left(phone_w,1)="1" .and. len(phone_w)=11
            phone_w = substr(phone_w,2)
        END IF
    
        phone_w = stuff( phone_w, 4, 0, "-" )
        IF len(trim(phone_w))>8
            phone_w = stuff( phone_w, 8, 0, "-" )
        END IF
     
        Phone_dash = phone_w
    
    END FUNCTION
    Use this in the CanWrite Field event to format the phone number before saving the record:
    A_field_value = Phone_dash( A_field_value )

    Then use the function in scripted finds something like this:
    Code:
    input_phone = ui_get_text( "PHONE NUMBER?", "Enter Bill-to phone number." )
    IF input_phone = ""
        END'
    END IF
    parentform.index_set( "Cust_fone_" )
    parentform.find( Phone_dash( input_phone ) )

    #2
    Re: Phone_dash - format phone numbers.

    Thanks Cal,
    What I like the most is How you used this function in your "Find" field... a very creative way to make something much more user friendly.
    Mike
    __________________________________________
    It is only when we forget all our learning that we begin to know.
    It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.
    Henry David Thoreau
    __________________________________________



    Comment


      #3
      Re: Phone_dash - format phone numbers.

      Thanks. Yeah, one of my generic apps requires entering a lot of phone numbers. It's also not uncommon to run Find operations on phone numbers in that app - multiple times each day. I found it interesting (but somehow not terribly surprising) that most users don't seem to appreciate the significance but a couple of them have used something else and really like the fact that they can just type the numerals and forget all the other stuff. That makes data input much faster.

      One user switched to another company that doesn't use my program and I heard back through the grapevine that she really missed this feature at her new job.

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Phone_dash - format phone numbers.

        Hi Cal,

        I don't know if you remember, but I posted an phone translation function back in Feb of 2006 in the code archive that allowed similar and a few more options for cleaning up a phone number for use. For those who want to look at that version, it can be found here
        Regards,

        Ira J. Perlow
        Computer Systems Design


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        Comment


          #5
          Re: Phone_dash - format phone numbers.

          No. In fact I don't recall ever seeing that one. It definitely looks more flexible.

          However, I did have to make a minor change. I want users to be able to enter 7 digit numbers and the result was this in the Interactive Window:

          ?phonexlat( "2345678")
          = "-234-5678"

          So I added this right before the end:
          Code:
          IF left( ph, 1 ) = "-"
              ph = substr( ph, 2 )
          END IF
          Maybe that was just a personal preference issue.

          Then I did some more playing around and rediscovered another truth - nothing ever works for every situation. One of my needs was to allow a "1" at the beginning of any number that was 7 or 10 digits. As it is, yours won't do that but I'm sure it could be modified. However, mine does what I need for my situation right now. And, as you know, time has been rather short around here lately so I'll just leave yours the way it is. After all, my need for allowing the "1" is rather unusual.

          Comment

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