Another scientific Notation Mixup



  •  I hate unformatted text. what I hate more, is data, that is formatted incorrectly. I can understand that numbers are internally stored, in exponential notation, but there are certain types of number, which should never be displayed in Exponential notation. Like a Phone number, for example.

    [IMG]http://i308.photobucket.com/albums/kk348/dev3_44/Bill.jpg[/IMG]

     



  •  So they store phone numbers as decimals? that's interesting. I guess it should be "91.2229"? I wonder how they store, for example, german phone numbers where "." as a separator is not very common (no, "," is wrong too..). And I wonder if their system suffers from precision problems.



  •  I smell excel



  •  TRWTF is that the forum doesn't use a CSS overflow statement to allow people with small browser windows to see the phone number on that image. For a while I couldn't work out what I was looking for.



  •  @Juifeng said:

     So they store phone numbers as decimals? that's interesting. I guess it should be "91.2229"? I wonder how they store, for example, german phone numbers where "." as a separator is not very common (no, "," is wrong too..). And I wonder if their system suffers from precision problems.

    We in india do not have any standard way of fomating phone numbers. The area code can be from 3 digits to 5 digits. This is usually followed by the local landline number (8 digits) or if it is a  mobile number, the  10 digits ,are preceded by a 0

    However in this case, they seem to be using the India code (+91) followed by the Area code, followed by the 8 digit land line number.



  • @dtech said:

     I smell excel
    Me too. It smells just like noob.



  • @Juifeng said:

    So they store phone numbers as decimals?

    There are apparently quite a few countries which use multiple decimal points to separate their phone numbers.  For example, I am given to understand that the UK does this.

    I've seen programs handle input like this in four different ways: error on the second decimal point, recognize that it's obviously not floating point and so handle it as a string, truncate starting at the second decimal point, and ignore the second and later decimal points.  We're obviously looking at one of the latter two methods here.  This is a WTF, but I've definitely seen it before.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @tgape said:

    There are apparently quite a few countries which use multiple decimal points to separate their phone numbers.  For example, I am given to understand that the UK does this
    Um no. Parentheses, spaces and hyphens (usually in the wrong place, where used, for London numbers,) maybe, but not decimal points.

     



  •  @tgape said:

    @Juifeng said:
    So they store phone numbers as decimals?

    There are apparently quite a few countries which use multiple decimal points to separate their phone numbers.  For example, I am given to understand that the UK does this.

     Nope, we use spaces. The French seem to as well (at least all my suppliers do), not sure about other countries.

     

     

    Edit: Darn, beaten. That'll teach me to not refresh the window before replying.



  • @DOA said:

    @dtech said:

    I smell excel
    Me too. It smells just like noob.


    Just because you are both too dumb to use Excel properly, and would apparently use Excel for a system like this does not mean everyone would.



  • @Farmer Brown said:

    @DOA said:
    @dtech said:
     I smell excel
    Me too. It smells just like noob.
    Just because you are both too dumb to use Excel properly, and would apparently use Excel for a system like this does not mean everyone would.
    Last time my jackass alarm had gone off like this, it was MPS.

    Now taking bets on how long before Farmer Brown gets the boot. 



  • @DOA said:

    Last time my jackass alarm had gone off like this, it was MPS.

    Now taking bets on how long before Farmer Brown gets the boot.

    Replying to his trolling is only going to derail more threads, make this place suck more, prolong his stay and possibly get you booted as well.  Just treat him like a 3-year-old running around the house, banging a pot for attention.  Well, except that you can't lay him out on the floor with a good smack like you would a 3-year-old.  And I suppose most people would tell the child to quit after a point, which violates the "ignore him" rule...  Hmm...



  • @PJH said:

    @tgape said:

    There are apparently quite a few countries which use multiple decimal points to separate their phone numbers.  For example, I am given to understand that the UK does this
    Um no. Parentheses, spaces and hyphens (usually in the wrong place, where used, for London numbers,) maybe, but not decimal points. 

    I use decimal points for separators and I see some people do it in the US, so it's not unheard of.  I don't know if it's a regional thing, but I have noticed it seems to happen more with people heavy into math or science. 



  • @dev3 said:


    Considering what's recently happened in Mumbai, the TNT label at the top takes on a much scarier mental image.  Not to mention the "ideas for the new century" taking on a more ominous tone. 



  • @Soviut said:

    Not to mention the "ideas for the new century" taking on a more ominous tone.

    Seriously, when are people going to quit with this "new century" junk?  It's been a new century for damn near a decade now. 



  • @DOA said:

    @Farmer Brown said:

    @DOA said:
    @dtech said:
    I smell excel
    Me too. It smells just like noob.

    Just because you are both too dumb to use Excel properly, and would apparently use Excel for a system like this does not mean everyone would.
    Last time my jackass alarm had gone off like this, it was MPS.

    Now taking bets on how long before Farmer Brown gets the boot. 


    What's the matter? You don't like being called out on your ridiculous assertions? You sound like morbiuswilters.



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    Seriously, when are people going to quit with this "new century" junk?  It's been a new century for damn near a decade now.

    Point.











    Morbiuswilter's head.



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    @Soviut said:

    Not to mention the "ideas for the new century" taking on a more ominous tone.

    Seriously, when are people going to quit with this "new century" junk?  It's been a new century for damn near a decade now. 

     

    It's been (almost) 9 years. That's less than 10%. Do you want an 8-year old boy to stop thinking about it's future because he's already at ten percent of hist life? :P



  • @dtech said:

    Do you want an 8-year old boy to stop thinking about it's future...

    I see you've never taken a trip to Wiltersland®, the theme park that attempts to correct the natural curiosity and hopefulness of children...

     

    So the answer is "yes". 



  • @Cursorkeys said:

     @tgape said:

    @Juifeng said:
    So they store phone numbers as decimals?

    There are apparently quite a few countries which use multiple decimal points to separate their phone numbers.  For example, I am given to understand that the UK does this.

     Nope, we use spaces. The French seem to as well (at least all my suppliers do), not sure about other countries.

     

    The French format is: area code in parens, space, then groups of two digits separated by a dot (the first of those groups sometimes consists of three digits)*.

     

     

    *Of course now someone from France will speak up and say they changed their scheme.



  • @Ilya Ehrenburg said:

    The French format is: area code in parens, space, then groups of two digits separated by a dot (the first of those groups sometimes consists of three digits)*.

     

     

    *Of course now someone from France will speak up and say they changed their scheme.

    Don't forget that the entire phone number is only permitted to take up 8-bits! 



  •  Simple. Store them on paper, 0 bits per number.



  •  Yes, I get this every now and then. One of my jobs is installing Eftpos machines, and, every so often, the codes we need to install them have been through floats and back, and end up in exponential notation. 

    Even better, the most significant digits that we do get are boilerplate anyway. Thankfully, we have a good helpdesk that can get us the real details stat.



  • @Soviut said:

    Considering what's recently happened in Mumbai, the TNT label at the top takes on a much scarier mental image.
     

    Oh no, Thomas Nationwide Transport is going to get you!



  • This happens all the time when people open CSV files with large integers in excell.

    By default, Excell will convert any 10+ (?) digit integer in a CSV file to floating point (and save it that way, with a loss of precision [and formatting], wether you alter any values in those numeric columns or not).  When those integers represent EANs, ISBNs, UPCs, phone numbers, etc., this is obviously extremely problematic.



  • @dtech said:

    It's been (almost) [b]8[/b] years.

     

    FTFY



  • @Ilya Ehrenburg said:

    @Cursorkeys said:

     @tgape said:

    @Juifeng said:
    So they store phone numbers as decimals?

    There are apparently quite a few countries which use multiple decimal points to separate their phone numbers.  For example, I am given to understand that the UK does this.

     Nope, we use spaces. The French seem to as well (at least all my suppliers do), not sure about other countries.

     

    The French format is: area code in parens, space, then groups of two digits separated by a dot (the first of those groups sometimes consists of three digits)*.

     

     

    *Of course now someone from France will speak up and say they changed their scheme.

    While we do use the (areacode) pho-nenumber standard, the local number length used to be variable... well it still is, but now there are only 3 "special cases". We used to have 8-digit full numbers, with 1/7, 2/6, 3/5 area/local numbers, depending on city size. However, since 2002 there are only 3/7 or 2/8 combos (the 3/7 format is identical to the US numbering system.) The only problem is that many people still aren't used to the area code changes, which has resulted in funny things.

    For example:

    Leon, Gto: Area code (477), previously (47). Old phone: 10-90-00, new phone 710-9000.

    However, I found this phone number in a flyer written as: (4777) 77710-9000. Yipes! They forgot how many 7's to the new number!!

    Add that with some people using parens to add up the "extra numbers" on the phone: (64)1-0000 being a local number, for example.



  • @campkev said:

    @dtech said:

    It's been (almost) 8 years.

     

    FTFY

    No.  Stop this nonsense.  Nobody wants to hear this "2001 was new millennium" anymore.  It's over.



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    <font color="#dd0000" size="3">Farmer Brown is MPS. He created a new forum account because he is obsessed with me after I scorned him. Ignoring his trolling is the best way to deal with the crybaby.
    </font>

    My hypothesis was that he's MPS' nephew. 



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    @campkev said:

    @dtech said:

    It's been (almost) 8 years.

     

    FTFY

    No.  Stop this nonsense.  Nobody wants to hear this "2001 was new millennium" anymore.  It's over.

    Agreed. If anything, I stick to the ISO dating standard, which everyone doing serious math uses. Just because Middle Ages historians didn't know about the number 0 doesn't mean we have to stick with broken counting measures.


  • @Ilya Ehrenburg said:

    @morbiuswilters said:

    <font color="#dd0000" size="3">Farmer Brown is MPS. He created a new forum account because he is obsessed with me after I scorned him. Ignoring his trolling is the best way to deal with the crybaby.
    </font>

    My hypothesis was that he's MPS' nephew. 

    Heh. I thought he was MPS' clone, or that he was possessed by MPS' soul after someone mentioned his name three times in a row, while reading TDWTF.


  • Clone may be, but certainly he's not possessed by MPS's soul, not enough élan for that.


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