I am working on a solution that requires the tracking of an applicant's social security number. On the surface this seems like a relatively easy task, however I'm running into a reporting issue in that some customers want full social security number displayed while others want a partial (xxx-xx-1234) and yet others want nothing dispayed.

The problem at hand is that the data the applicants are providing can be incomplete or full SSN's. Is it best for me to store the literal number that the applicant has provided and append the appropriate X's where appropriate, should I store a value of xxx-xx-xxx and then append the appropriate numbers as they are provided, or is there some other way to do this?

The problem at hand is that the data the applicants are providing can be incomplete or full SSN's. Is it best for me to store the literal number that the applicant has provided and append the appropriate X's where appropriate

Yes, this sounds like a good approach to me. To display the formatted SSN, you could either use a 2nd field that holds a calculated value, or use an auto-enter calculation that replaces the existing value.

should I store a value of xxx-xx-xxx and then append the appropriate numbers as they are provided, or is there some other way to do this?

You could, pre-populate the field with this value, but you don't have to.

Here are some functions that you will probably need:

Filter ( yourField ; "0123456789" ) // to get only the numbers from the users input

Right ( "xxxxxxxxx" & $usersNumericInput ; 9 ) // to get a string with 9 characters, and show the users input at the end of that string

Left ( $data ; 3 ) & "-" & Middle ( $data ; 4 ; 2 ) & "-" & Right ( $data ; 4 ) // to add the dashes to the 9 character string

See if this helps you. Social Security Number Format