Considerations when formatting phone numbers

If you ever read my post about considerations when customising address fields, I reckon you would know by now that I am all about consistency and standards. No, I am not aspy (my mother had me tested). But I could argue that computers are, which is why I am all for data quality and integrity.

I reckon everyone reading this would agree that normally, the formatting of phone numbers is a minor issue. However when one is involved in a project as a solutions architect and a requirement arises asking for phone numbers to be ‘perfectly’ formatted on systems, I am sure they’ll beg to differ. In this post I’ll be going over misconceptions and considerations around phone numbers an the consequences it might have on computer systems.