I'm trying to decide whether to store zip codes and phone #s in the dbf with or without the formatting characters.

I have a client who needs to store American, Canadian, Mexican and various European zip/postal codes
and phone #s.

I'm can't seem to find a reason for storing Zip codes as XXXXXXXXXX and use a format of R with appropriate
InputMask to display/print etc. or actually store it as 89106-1234 or A9X 7D2 in the table itself.

I would appreciate any input on pros and cons each way.

TIA

Bill