[AccessD] Zip + 4 + foreign phones

Doesn't it just make you want to become part of the USA?

<grin, duck and run>

John W. Colby
www.ColbyConsulting.com

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com]On Behalf Of Harry Coenen
Sent: Sunday, April 25, 2004 1:44 PM
To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'
Subject: RE: [AccessD] Zip + 4 + foreign phones


Hi Virginia

Just to show how "inconsiderate" we bloody foreigners sometimes are:
1. addressing formats differ e.g.
in the UK: house number before street name
in the Netherlands or Germany: street name followed by house number

2. postal codes differ national and international, e.g.:
In the Netherlands they would use the local format: e.g. 1000 AE Amsterdam
Internationally you would be advised to use: NL-1000 AE Amsterdam

3. postal code + place differ, e.g.:
In the Netherlands: NL-1000 AE Amsterdam (on the same line)
In the UK: (some hamlet), Exeter, Devon, EX? ??? (usually on four different
lines, where the hamlet and county (Devon) may be omitted)

4. First name + Last name combinations differ, e.g.:
in Northern America and Europe: First Name before Last Name
in some Asian and Arabic countries the other way around.
The question is if the "Western" concept of first+last name applies
universally?

5. middle names differ, e.g.:
In the Netherlands: "Van den Bergh" would be sorted on "B" (unless the
person is of Anglo-American descent)
In the UK the same name would be sorted on "V"

6. First name (calling name) is not necessarily the first of the forenames.
This one is becoming more important recently, given more stringent visa
checking and security checks at airports.

7. Titles used in mail addressing differ, e.g. a female academic professor
mrs X with a PhD:
in the UK academic professors prefer to be addressed as: Professor X
in some other European countries they are more happy with: Prof. Dr. Mrs. X
although they might differ on the dots (Prof. or Prof).

In short:
Name and Address probably should be treated as atomic attributes, only
differentiating the bulk of the data based on the most relevant conventions
and treating the rest as "non-standard".
standard name/address -> split in the usual (local) attributes
non-standard name/address -> no split but using the "addressing name"/full
address

Why should you care?
It all depends, e.g.
for judicial purposes you simply have to get it right according to the local
judicial principles, otherwise they have lost the case before they even get
to court
for marketing purposes your client probably doesn't want to put customers of
by wrong addressing, or even worse, by web forms that don't allow non-US
address formats (e.g. allowing Andorra as a country, while still insisting
on a US state as a required field)


Thanks for the question, I really like these puzzles which can only be
solved by some kind of a pragmatic choice.

Cheers

Harry

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