Country Codes

To allow phones to dial other phones anywhere in the world they must be globally unique. To that end the international community agreed upon a series of 2 and 3 digit country codes. The only exception to this rule is the USA and Canada, which have a country code of 1. Most North Americans are blissfully unaware of this fact and know only that to dial a long distance number within North American they must dial 1 before the 10-digit number. North America was given the country code of 1 to stay compatible with ancient system in which dialing the digit 1 at the beginning of a phone number told the switch that the subscriber wanted to make a long distance call.

On landline phones a subscriber prefaces the country code with 011, but on GSM phones this was simplified by turning 011 into a plus sign. So, the country code is always a plus sign followed by the 1, 2, or 3 digit ID for that country. For example, +1 for the USA or Canada and +44 for the UK.

However, it is often a pain to display your own country code in front of every single number in your phonebook, and so ContactsEx allows you to suppress the country code on all numbers in your own country. On the Formats Tab of the Settings dialog you set your country code and you choose under which conditions you wish to have it used or displayed. All phone numbers that do not begin with a plus sign will be deemed to be in your country.

In all of the following examples it will be assumed that the display of your own country code has been suppressed.

Area Codes

Many countries subdivide their numbers into a series of regions often referred as Area Codes. Your country may not call them this, but no matter they are called, they perform the same function. As country codes break up the world into regions defined by national borders, area codes break down numbers within countries into regions.

Sometimes phone companies allow local calls made from one phone in a given area code to another phone in the same area code to be dialed without included the Area Code. In order for ContactsEx to deal with this, it needs to know your local Area Code so that it can allow numbers to be stored without it, and yet add it back when it is necessary.

There are essentially two ways for a phone system to identify a number that has an area code vs one that does not. In North America for example all area codes are 3-digts long and the numbers that follow are always 7-digits long. So, a 7-digit number doesn't have an area code, while a 10-digit number does. In Australia however, area codes are always 2-digits long and they always begin with a 0. So, any number that begins with 0 has an area code, while those that begin with another digit do not.

In special cases, such as Australia, the common digit (in this case "0") must be included when dialing a number without a country code (for example 0411112222), but it must be left off when dialing with a country code (for example +66411112222). ContactsEx also accommodates this type of system.

But how do you know if you NEED to use the area code feature of ContactsEx? Well, if you have a situation such as you find in Australia, then you MUST use the area code feature to ensure that numbers are properly structured under all conditions. However, if you live in a place where full-digit dialing is required (such as many large cities in North America, where 10-digit dialing is a must due to overlapping area codes) then you don't to use it. Once you understand how the scheme works however, you can easily figure this out for yourself. All of the details concerning the parameters in the area code feature are outlined in the documentation for the Area Tab.

Number Formatting

So why format phone numbers? The answer is quite simple really, human beings have a difficult time identifying a long string of unbroken digits, especially when certain of those digits provide useful information concerning the location of the number. In North America the continent is divided into large chunks represented by area codes, which are 3 digits long. Within an area code each subscriber is associated with a specific switching office by means of a 3-digit exchange. The remaining 4 digits designate the address within that exchange. Of course, number portability has blurred these distinctions, but for the most part the scheme still works.

Say you were to receive a phone call form the following phone number:

+14166610123

At first glance (during those fleeting seconds before you must answer the call or send it to voicemail) it is difficult to glean the area code and exchange from this string. Your eyes might be drawn to the string of 6s and you might think the exchange is 666, whereas it is really 661. However, if that same number were to pop up on the screen as:

(416) 661-0123

...it would be immediately obvious what each part of the number was. In fact, no one in North America ever writes down, presents, utters, or even remembers a phone number without making this important division in its structure. Outside of the cell phone world it is taken for granted that phone numbers are represented in this (or similar) manner.

The only reason people put up with unbroken strings of digits is because they are given no choice by the manufacture of their phones. CDMA models (which are often built strictly for the North American market) frequently honor this format, but GSM phones are a mixed bag.

In other countries it seems that there are many different formats, and in many cases varying numbers of digits. This adds to the confusion and may explain why GSM phones rarely deal with number formats.

The Format Database

The principle behind the Number Formats database is very simple: It matches a phone number against its country code and its total number of digits (excluding the country code). If a matching format is found in the database, then that format is applied to the number prior to displaying it. Format strings are completely free-form and may contain any number of padding characters to adorn the raw phone number.

Over time it is my intention to pre-load the database with as many international formats as possible, but in the beginning the chances are good that your country won't be included in the list. Fortunately the database is completely user-definable, which means that you can customize the number formats even if they have already been provided upon initial installation of ContactsEx.

I did a bit of research on UK phone numbers by going to the HMV web page and using their store locator to find the phone numbers of their locations across the country. I found 3 different formats that all had 11 digits in total (though for all I knew there could have been more). Here are examples of those 3 formats:

08448 007 841
0845 602 7828
02920 3488 08

The database can automatically determine which format to use for numbers if there is only one format for a given country code and total digits, but for situations where a given country code and total digits has multiple formats (as noted above), the database can't implicitly tell the difference.

Under these circumstances all previously-unknown numbers will be formatted using the designated default for that particular country code and total digits. You choose the default based on whatever format is most commonly used in your area. For numbers in your phonebook however, ContactsEx allows you to choose which of the multiple formats to apply to a given number.

How to Create a Format

A format is simplicity itself. All characters except for the numbers 0 through 9 appear in the displayed number as they appear in the format. The numbers (no matter what they are) will be replaced digit-for-digit by the phone number. For example, many North Americans are used to seeing the area code enclosed in parentheses with a space or hyphen used to separate the exchange from the final 4 digits. So, a format string to create this sort of number might look like this:

(000) 000-0000

Note that the digits used in the format are irrelevant, and you may choose whatever numbers make sense to you. So, if you received a call from +14166610123 it will be displayed as:

(416) 661-0123

In the rare instances where you might actually want a digit to be part of the fixed string. To enter a fixed digit in the format, enclose the digits in quotes. For example, the following format string (as improbably as it may be):

("5") 000-000-0000

...would yield a result of:

(5) 416-661-0123

You can enter as many formats as you like for any country code or total digits.

Along with the country code and format string, you will also be able enter the characters that separate the country code from the phone number in all instances where the country code is required (such as in numbers from outside of your home country or when you tell ContactsEx to include the country code at all times). When left unspecified, the country code divider is a single space.

Were you to set the divider characters to a space, followed by a hyphen, followed by a space, then the format of one of the HMV numbers I noted able would look like this:

+44 - 08448 007 841

If the divider was left blank, then the number would display as:

+44 08448 007 841

Setting the Order of Formats

Normally the editor displays formats in numerical order by country code, and then by number of digits within a given country code. However, for formats that have the same country code and total digits, you can specify the order in which they are displayed (just as you can with contact data).

For the most part the order of the entries is cosmetic, but whichever format appears at the top of its group is the default format for that particular country code and total digits. It will be the one that ContactsEx uses unless told to do otherwise.

Editing the Formats Database

To edit your formats database go to the Names Tab and press the Options softkey. From the menu select the Number Formats menu item. From this editor you can add new formats, edit existing ones, and even remove formats completely.

Adding a new format is done by pressing the Options softkey and choosing the Add New Format menu item. To edit a format you choose the one you want to change and you press the SELECT button. To delete a format you choose the one you want and then press the CLEAR key or choose Delete form the Options menu. The editor looks something like this:
 

When adding or editing a format you will be required to enter 3 pieces of data: 1) the country code (without the plus sign); 2) the format string; and 3) the country code divider. As noted above, the third item can be left blank, in which case the country code will be separated from the remainder of the number by a single space. To change the order of formats that have the same country code and total digits, begin by selecting one of the formats in the group (it doesn't matter which one). Press the Options softkey and select the Change Order menu item. Now follow the instructions outlined in Changing Item Order. Note that the Change Order menu item does not appear unless the currently-select format is part of a group.

Once you've finished making your modifications, press the Back softkey to return to the contacts tab.