>>>>Hi Barbara,
>>>>
>>>>Thought I would jump in here and ask a question about InputMask.
>>>>
>>>>Do you have an opinion about whether it is better to have a phone # field just store the digits (as if the
>>>>field type were "N", or to store the formating characters in the field with the data?
>>>>
>>>>I have a client that needs to store phone #s from all over the world, so I have to apply a different InputMask
>>>>during data entry, depending on what country they're in. I have no problem with that part of it. I'm trying
>>>>to figure out whether I should have the field C(20) have an InputMask property alone which puts the "()-" in
>>>>the data or should I have an InputMask property along with a Format property of "R" that strips the "()-" out
>>>>of the data before storing it.
>>>>
>>>>I also have the same issue with Zip/Postal Codes.
>>>>
>>>>Any ideas?
>>>>
>>>>Bill
>>>
>>>Bill, that's not an easy one. It depends on a lot of things:
>>>
>>>Do your users mind entering format symbols themselves?
>>>
>>>Do you ever need to search on a phone number/postal code/... where the formatting could make a major difference?
>>>
>>>How many different versions of each do you have? US + Canadian Postal Codes? 10 different telephone formats? etc.
>>>
>>>What I have done for my clients with international entries is have a standard format for US/Canadian phone numbers and remove it for all other countries (a blank country code is assumed by one client to be US, by another to be non-US with appropriate formatting). The same for the postal codes, except there are 3 choices - US, Canada, no formatting.
>>>
>>>Then I store everything unformatted, so users can index/search on that data.
>>>
>>>However, this is only my opinion. You may get other better suggestions.
>>>
>>>Barbara
>>
>>Have you ever tried displaying all the postal codes and/or phone numbers in a grid? If so how did you display
>>the different formatting codes for each row (assuming you did)?
>>
>>Bill
>I didn't try it for postal codes but DynamicInputMask helped me in situations like this.

Yeah, as I said on another thread. When I looked at that, somehow I got the idea that it was formatting the
entire column.

Thanks

Bill