[AccessD] [Spam] Re: Why Change Field Size/was Change Field Size

...I used to try to do phone validation by country but gave up due to some 
countries having as many as a half dozen internal systems ...and keep 
changing them ...how in the hell they talk to each other is a mystery to me 
:(
...I now default to form level formatting/validating for US/CAN phone 
numbers, but turn it all off for other international numbers ...and yes, I 
limit that field size at the table level ...its the only sane way I've found 
to deal with the problem :(

William
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Arthur Fuller" <artful at rogers.com>
To: "'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'" 
<accessd at databaseadvisors.com>
Sent: Wednesday, December 07, 2005 3:15 AM
Subject: Re: [AccessD] [Spam] Re: Why Change Field Size/was Change Field 
Size


> Way back when, in the days of Clipper, Artful.Lib included a phone number
> validation function that obeyed all the rules internationally that were 
> then
> current. Then populations grew and phone number prefixes ran out of 
> suffixes
> and then they started breaking the rules. Currently, I can't think of a 
> rule
> set that guarantees the validity of a phone number, and even if I could, I
> would give it a life expectancy of a couple of years at best.
> A.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
> [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of John Colby
> Sent: December 5, 2005 6:43 PM
> To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'
> Subject: Re: [AccessD] [Spam] Re: Why Change Field Size/was Change Field
> Size
>
> I just ran into a field the other day.  PolicyID, guaranteed to NEVER be
> more than 10 characters, so the field was set to 10 characters (by the
> previous programmer).
>
> Guess what?  We finally (3 years later) got a policed that was waaaay more
> than 10 characters.  Of course the entire policy record could not go in,
> which prevented the claim from being processed.  All users must get out of
> the database so that I can open up the field (to 255 characters of 
> course).
>
> I don't care WHAT the business rule is, text data can and will change. 
> SSN
> is a good example.  It is guaranteed to be XXX-XX-XXXX except that they 
> are
> running out of SSNs (50 years later) and guess what is going to change in
> the next few years...
>
> Length types of rules are not the thing (IMHO) that should be enforced at
> the DB level.
>
> John W. Colby
> www.ColbyConsulting.com
>
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