> Thanks Daniel and Lucas for replies.
>
> Should have mentioned - I'm located in that big country with gas
> guzzling cars (Los Angeles, to be exact).
>
> My needs are much simpler here than the complex number issues you have -
> and I'm not allowing for non-US numbers.
>
> So all I'm wanting to do is turn:
>
> 8185223329
>
> into:
>
> (818) 522-3329
>
> (which was why I said simple picture masks for languages like Delphi
> take care of lots of headaches for user entry).
>
> I'm really wondering if storing as a compact string of all digits OUT
> WEIGHS the overhead of using a function to present the format more
> politely.
> Looking quickly at Apendix I in Helen's book, something like this could
> get me there :
>
> select '(' || substr(tele1,1,3) || ') ' || substr(tele1,4,3) || '-' ||
> sright(tele1,4)
>
> (but, thats ugly, eh ??). I just thought a UDF to handle the whole
> thing could help - but just wanted to see if there was one already (not
> sure i'm up to writing them yet)
>
> Thanks again
>
> Rich Pinder
> USC School of Medicine

this is really something for your client layer to handle.
Have you thought what will happen with this function if your users are
permitted (i.e. no mask provided for them) to enter
123-4567890
or
(123)4567890
or
123 4567890
??
or what happens if they enter (818) 522-3329?
Plus it's no fun for a user to have to enter
1234567890
and work out if they've entered a mistaken digit.
The result will be mess.
Alan