Still, I strongly disagree that there is a standard string representation for phone numbers. For example, French phone numbers don't have area codes (since 2022), and they are typically (but not always!) displayed as 0X XX XX XX. - ThreadSky

ivcanet.bsky.social • 188 days ago

Still, I strongly disagree that there is a standard string representation for phone numbers.

For example, French phone numbers don't have area codes (since 2022), and they are typically (but not always!) displayed as 0X XX XX XX.

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ivcanet.bsky.social•188 days ago

The first digit lets you know the kind of device that is calling you. For example, 01 through 05 is a landline, 06 through 07 is a cellphone, and 09 is a call center.

skaldebane.dev•188 days ago

Yeah, it's like that in many (most?) countries.

But I guess this is kinda like date/time. toString isn't required to return a consistent representation. Something "good enough" will do for messy data, but the underlying data structure must be quite flexible (e.g. a string or integer in this case).

olivero2.bsky.social•188 days ago

There is ITU-T's E.123 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.123), E.164 and of course lots of national/regional stuff. The North American Numbering Plan (US, CA) definitely does not let you call worldwide. Interesting to learn about how this works in France these days.

ivcanet.bsky.social•188 days ago

https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_de_num%C3%A9rotation_en_France (the English version seems to be outdated)

Admittedly, I didn't know much of this, but “five pairs of digits” is how all phone numbers are displayed, except some companies that take shortcuts

bitspittle.bsky.social•188 days ago

I think we're getting in the weeds a bit. In general, `toString` is for debugging text, so I think it's OK to choose *a* common standard to represent your class, *if* one exists.

If you need to actually render a phone number for a user, you probably want something separate like a formatter class.

ivcanet.bsky.social•188 days ago

True, definitely.

I still wouldn't call this the standard formatting though.

bitspittle.bsky.social•188 days ago

I mean, if I saw the debug string "555-123-4567" I'd immediately recognize it as a phone number. So "standard enough" maybe? 🙂

ivcanet.bsky.social•188 days ago

I would too, but i am aware of US culture. Since french phone numbers always start with a 0, I don't know if the average french person would get it.

rafael.tonholo.dev•188 days ago

I second that. Before moving to Canada, if I just saw a string like that I would think of anything else other than a phone number. At first I would think maybe in an ID, or something else.

The way Brazilian phone numbers are displayed is different, so that would never be an instant match for me.

ivcanet.bsky.social•187 days ago

Out of curiosity, what do Brazilian phone numbers look like?

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