Finding Phone Numbers

[RRRANN]

I have imported records into a database, and the "Phone" field is set to "Numeric, Indexed". The data imports in this format: (xxx) xxx-xxxx

When I try to search for (as an example) all phone numbers in the 404 area code, I get an error message or no records found. I can't even find a valid phone number.

What am I doing wrong or how do I stucture the FIND command?

Thanx

Bob

[Fitch]

Phone fields should be text, not number fields.

[RRRANN]

Thanks. That works, but I don't understand why a phone number isn't numeric.

[-Queue-]

(123) 456-7890 is a phone number. It is textual. The numeric version would be 1234567890. If you were to do a search for '456' in the text field, you would find this number. If you were to search for it in the number field, you would not find it, because '456' is not a part of 1234567890 as 'numbers' are understood. A good rule of thumb is, if you're not going to be performing numeric calculations, then the 'number' should in fact be text, for example, zip codes, ssn's, phone/fax numbers, etc.

[Fitch]

Search for 123 in a text field, you'll find 1234, 12345, 123.02 etc. Search in a number field, you'll find only the exact matching number.

Also, phone numbers don't start with zero in this country, but many zip codes do. Those leading zeroes would be ignored if you made the zip code a number field.