Ask HN: Is there a standard for representing phone numbers in text?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3693085

by acron0 • 14 years ago

2 5 14 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I'm stuck as to the "best" way to represent my UK phone number in an e-mail and I am wondering if there is a standard way.

Currently I have "(+44) 01234567890", but I have seen...

..."+44 1234 567890" ..."+44 (0)1234 567890" ..."+44.1234 567890" ..."44-1234-567-890"

and various combinations.

I'd be interested to see the regex involved in things like Skype's phone number plugin if there is no standard... :\

kellros• 14 years ago

The problem is that country codes isn't standardized. The + (plus) denotes that you need to enter your country code, ex to call your number I would dial 27441234567890 (27 being South Africa). Albeit in generally country codes are 4 characters long with leading zeroes, leading zeroes of local numbers are also chopped off. The following format pretty much represents the majority of the numbers out there (+:calling country code)(country code)(region code)(area code)(local number), afaik there are some countries without country codes too.

DanBC2• 14 years ago

+ means you need to dial a code (an 'exit code') to call an international number. In the UK this is 00. The UK country code is 44.

To call the UK from the US you'd dial 011 for the exit code, then 44 for the UK country code. The country code for the US, and for Canada, is 1.

freestyler_1• 14 years ago

I looked deeper into this and found the good way to write down the number.

I was wrong earlier. Here goes example: +44(0)1234 567890 The + is the international access number (from the country you call from)which is 00 is my country The zero between brackets is to show the international number and the national number, people in your own country can call 01234567890 and people if I were to call you I would dial 00441234567890. ( 00 is the international acces code here)

acron0• 14 years ago

I think I'll go with this :)

DanBC2• 14 years ago

(http://blog.stevenlevithan.com/archives/validate-phone-numbe...)

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.164)

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_number)

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_numbering_plan)

Ask HN: Is there a standard for representing phone numbers in text?

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