# Sanitising a Phone Number input **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [April 24, 2006, 9:52pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/sanitising-a-phone-number-input/58689 "2006-04-24T21:52:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dezrtdude](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@dezrtdude](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dezrtdude)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 9:52pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/sanitising-a-phone-number-input/58689/1 "2006-04-24T21:52:01Z")
I want to sanitise a phone number input. In my UsersController.rb file I have written a method that will take a string and reduce it to numbers only. This works find if I call it manually, but in the interests of keeping DRY I would like to ensure that the code sanitisation method is called whenever the data is edited (I’m using standard scaffolidng for this test). Is there anyway I can do this and keep the code overhead low? My current sanitisation method looks like this: private def numericalise!(\*number) for n in number.phone do n.gsub!(/[^0-9]/, ‘’) end end Thanks in advance for your time and help. ---
**Author:** ![dezrtdude](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@dezrtdude](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dezrtdude)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 10:17pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/sanitising-a-phone-number-input/58689/2 "2006-04-24T22:17:06Z")
Why not use validates\_format\_of [http://lists.rubyonrails.org/pipermail/rails/2006-February/015659.html](http://lists.rubyonrails.org/pipermail/rails/2006-February/015659.html) On Monday, April 24, 2006, at 9:52 PM, Michael W. wrote: > Is there anyway I can do this and keep the code overhead low? > > Thanks in advance for your time and help. > > – > Posted via [http://www.ruby-forum.com/](http://www.ruby-forum.com/). > > * * * > > Rails mailing list > removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid > [http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails](http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails) \_Kevin ---
**Author:** ![dezrtdude](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@dezrtdude](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dezrtdude)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 10:22pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/sanitising-a-phone-number-input/58689/3 "2006-04-24T22:22:16Z")
I want to remove thr formatting, not check for it. It’s to be expected that user may put spaces, commas, periods and parenthisis in a phone number and I don’t want to force them in to a particular format. If I sanitise the code first (then validate it for completeness) then I’m happy with the data and the user finds the input easy. Kevin O. wrote: > Why not use > > validates\_format\_of > > [http://lists.rubyonrails.org/pipermail/rails/2006-February/015659.html](http://lists.rubyonrails.org/pipermail/rails/2006-February/015659.html) > > On Monday, April 24, 2006, at 9:52 PM, Michael W. wrote: > > > Is there anyway I can do this and keep the code overhead low? > > > > Thanks in advance for your time and help. > > > > – > > Posted via [http://www.ruby-forum.com/](http://www.ruby-forum.com/). > > > > * * * > > > > Rails mailing list > > removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid > > [http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails](http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails) > > \_Kevin ---
**Author:** ![dezrtdude](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@dezrtdude](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dezrtdude)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 10:32pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/sanitising-a-phone-number-input/58689/4 "2006-04-24T22:32:41Z")
Then just call your sanitizer on the attribute in question in the update or create methods of your controller. On Monday, April 24, 2006, at 10:22 PM, Michael W. wrote: > > validates\_format\_of > > > > > * * * > > * * * > > Rails mailing list > removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid > [http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails](http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails) \_Kevin ---
**Author:** ![dezrtdude](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@dezrtdude](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dezrtdude)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 10:32pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/sanitising-a-phone-number-input/58689/5 "2006-04-24T22:32:42Z")
Michael W. wrote: > I want to remove thr formatting, not check for it. It’s to be expected > that user may put spaces, commas, periods and parenthisis in a phone > number and I don’t want to force them in to a particular format. > > If I sanitise the code first (then validate it for completeness) then > I’m happy with the data and the user finds the input easy. You could use the before\_validation callback to clean the data before it gets validated. – Josh S. [http://blog.hasmanythrough.com](http://blog.hasmanythrough.com) ---
**Author:** ![dezrtdude](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@dezrtdude](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dezrtdude)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 10:42pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/sanitising-a-phone-number-input/58689/6 "2006-04-24T22:42:10Z")
Thankyou, this was what I needed 🙂 Josh S. wrote: > Michael W. wrote: > > > I want to remove thr formatting, not check for it. It’s to be expected > > that user may put spaces, commas, periods and parenthisis in a phone > > number and I don’t want to force them in to a particular format. > > > > If I sanitise the code first (then validate it for completeness) then > > I’m happy with the data and the user finds the input easy. > > You could use the before\_validation callback to clean the data before it > gets validated. > > – > Josh S. > [http://blog.hasmanythrough.com](http://blog.hasmanythrough.com)