Re: Storing Integers As Character Strings

On 24 Mar 2005 03:17:13 -0800, gibsong4077_at_yahoo.co.uk wrote:

>I'm revisiting a principle I was taught 15 odd years ago and wondering
>if it is still current - I've tried trawling through the ISO standards
>and either its not defined as a standard or my searching wasn't good
>enough! (probably the latter).
>
>Basically, I'm putting together a list of standards on data labelling
>conventions for column names etc (based on the ISO ones) for the
>developers where I work and I've come up with a bit of a dilemma and
>would like some thoughts and guidance.

     There was some recent mention in comp.databases of ISO 11179. A link that was posted was

          <http://www.dbazine.com/gulutzan5.shtml> I have not read it.

>I was taught many years ago to store house numbers, telephone numbers
>etc as charcter strings i.e. varchar, varchar2, char etc, reason being
>that the operations that would be carried out on these attributes would
>be textual in nature i.e. you might concat house number to street name
>but you're hardly likely to do mathematical functions on house numbers
>(though I did once use a modulo function on house numbers in a
>marketing campaign to get 1/2 the houses in a street sent one mailer
>and the other 1/2 another....but I digress).

     To continue the digression, what would you do about my street address? My "house number" is 1313 1/2. There are a number of addresses with 1/2 in them in the downtown where I live.

>I would be interested in being pointed towards the 'current' thinking
>and if what I was instructed way back then is still relevant or if I
>was totally misguided....

<facetious>

     It is still relevant, and you were totally misguided. <S> After all, you are better than ever, right?
</>

      Yes, it is still relevant.

>Thanks for all your help in anticipation, your feedback is always
>valued and taken on board.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko Received on Thu Mar 24 2005 - 21:17:02 CET