# Phone number conversions **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [November 4, 2009, 10:44pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/phone-number-conversions/178456 "2009-11-04T22:44:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Todd\_ASJacobs](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@Todd\_ASJacobs](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Todd_ASJacobs)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 10:44pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/phone-number-conversions/178456/1 "2009-11-04T22:44:29Z")
I’m trying to figure out a good way to store phone numbers as an integer in a rails app without having to have separate columns in the table for each part of the phone number. I want people to enter the phone number in a single entry field, but to be able to store it as an integer rather than as a string. My idea was to allow free-form text entry in the form, but to add something into create() to turn the string into an integer. From the console, though: ``` >> @foo=User.new >> @foo.build_contact >> @foo.contact.phone='123-456-7890' >> p @foo.contact.phone => 123 ``` Obviously, rails is converting the string to an integer before saving it to the database, but this doesn’t get me where I need to go. My idea was to simply add some evaluation in create like: ``` @foo.contact.phone.gsub([^\d]+, '') ``` but this obviously isn’t going to work. So, if my model defines contact.phone as an integer, how can I coerce numbers entered from the new/edit views into the appropriate data type? – “Oh, look: rocks!” – Doctor Who, “Destiny of the Daleks” ---
**Author:** ![Todd\_ASJacobs](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@Todd\_ASJacobs](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Todd_ASJacobs)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 10:56pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/phone-number-conversions/178456/2 "2009-11-04T22:56:46Z")
On Wed, Nov 4, 2009 at 3:43 PM, Todd A. Jacobs [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > @foo.contact.phone.gsub([^\d]+, ‘’) What about storing things like 123-123-1234 ext 123 ? A phone number isn’t a number. – Greg D. [http://destiney.com/](http://destiney.com/) ---
**Author:** ![Todd\_ASJacobs](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@Todd\_ASJacobs](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Todd_ASJacobs)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 11:01pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/phone-number-conversions/178456/3 "2009-11-04T23:01:27Z")
2009/11/4 Greg D. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid): > On Wed, Nov 4, 2009 at 3:43 PM, Todd A. Jacobs > [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > > Â Â @foo.contact.phone.gsub([^\d]+, ‘’) > > What about storing things like 123-123-1234 ext 123 ? > > A phone number isn’t a number. Also UK phone numbers generally start with 0 so 0123456789 would be indistinguishable from 123456789 What is wrong with storing it as a string anyway? Colin ---
**Author:** ![Todd\_ASJacobs](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@Todd\_ASJacobs](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Todd_ASJacobs)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 12:02am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/phone-number-conversions/178456/4 "2009-11-05T00:02:55Z")
On Wed, Nov 04, 2009 at 09:59:36PM +0000, Colin L. wrote: > What is wrong with storing it as a string anyway? Strings are less efficient than integers, from a database point of view. More importantly, though, if you store a number as varchar or text, you have a much harder time regularizing the output. For example, you couldn’t do this: > > foo = ActionView::Base.new > > foo.number\_to\_phone 1234567890, :area\_code =\> true > > =\> “(123) 456-7890” with a random string. If you try, you just get back the original string, like so: ``` >> foo.number_to_phone "123/456.7890x55", :area_code => true => "123/456.7890x55" ``` The whole idea here is to regularize the data IN THE DATABASE, so that the output can be customized (and perhaps even changed later) without having to change the schema. Isn’t there some way to strip out the characters and extra digits _after_ form submission but _before_ the assignment to the model object? – “Oh, look: rocks!” – Doctor Who, “Destiny of the Daleks” ---
**Author:** ![Todd\_ASJacobs](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@Todd\_ASJacobs](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Todd_ASJacobs)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 11:30pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/phone-number-conversions/178456/5 "2009-11-04T23:30:00Z")
Colin L. wrote: > What is wrong with storing it as a string anyway? I also thought about a way of normalizing phone numbers to make a ‘reverse’ search possible (I mean finding an address by phone number). But a number type would of course not make that easier. Leading zeros are important unless you would normalize all phone numbers to full international numbers that are the same from everywhere in the world. Interesting subject! Regards, T. ---
**Author:** ![Todd\_ASJacobs](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@Todd\_ASJacobs](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Todd_ASJacobs)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 12:33am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/phone-number-conversions/178456/6 "2009-11-05T00:33:21Z")
On Wed, Nov 4, 2009 at 3:01 PM, Todd A. Jacobs [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > More importantly, though, if you store a number as varchar or text, you > have a much harder time regularizing the output. For example, you > couldn’t do this: > > > > foo = ActionView::Base.new > > > foo.number\_to\_phone 1234567890, :area\_code =\> true > > > =\> “(123) 456-7890” which you can only do with US phone numbers, without extensions. That seems pretty limited.[\*] And if you’re going to try to not parse the data on the way into the database, how are you going to store your “123/456.7890x55” example? Stored strictly as an integer, foo.number\_to\_phone will return 12(345) 678-9055 – is that what you want? [\*] BTW, it’s not that long ago that my wife ran a small island resort in the Kingdom of Tonga, and the resort phone # was ‘5’ 🙂 ## FWIW, Hassan S. ------------------------ removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid twitter: @hassan ---
**Author:** ![Todd\_ASJacobs](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@Todd\_ASJacobs](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Todd_ASJacobs)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 12:34am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/phone-number-conversions/178456/7 "2009-11-05T00:34:19Z")
Todd A. Jacobs wrote: > On Wed, Nov 04, 2009 at 09:59:36PM +0000, Colin L. wrote: > > > What is wrong with storing it as a string anyway? > > Strings are less efficient than integers, from a database point of view. Premature optimization. – and phone numbers really aren’t numbers anyway. > More importantly, though, if you store a number as varchar or text, you > have a much harder time regularizing the output. For example, you > couldn’t do this: > > > > foo = ActionView::Base.new > > > foo.number\_to\_phone 1234567890, :area\_code =\> true > > > =\> “(123) 456-7890” Of course you can. It’s trivial to do that with a phone number stored as a string. In fact, doing it with an integer would involve converting the integer to a string first. > with a random string. If you try, you just get back the original string, > like so: > > ``` > >> foo.number_to_phone "123/456.7890x55", :area_code => true > => "123/456.7890x55" > > ``` Then use to\_i or write your own helper. Better yet, create a PhoneNumber class and give it a meaningful to\_s method. > The whole idea here is to regularize the data IN THE DATABASE, so that > the output can be customized (and perhaps even changed later) without > having to change the schema. Isn’t there some way to strip out the > characters and extra digits _after_ form submission but _before_ the > assignment to the model object? Yup. You can use an ActiveRecord callback, or (if you create a PhoneNumber class) use composed\_of and put this logic in the constructor. > – > “Oh, look: rocks!” > – Doctor Who, “Destiny of the Daleks” ## Best, Marnen Laibow-Koser [http://www.marnen.org](http://www.marnen.org) removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid