Post #278,044
3/11/07 9:57:51 PM
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Database's worst enemy: real life
Here is an address I had to type in for my kids' school journal:
2 1/2 Dearfield Drive
Greenwich, CT 06831
203-629-1900
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179. I will not outsource core functions.
--
[link|http://omega.med.yale.edu/~pcy5/misc/overlord2.htm|.]
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Post #278,045
3/11/07 10:42:51 PM
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Nothing wrong with it
The plus 4 is 5335.
Of course, it is missing and expected apartment or suite number.
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Post #278,048
3/11/07 11:54:32 PM
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Funny.
-- [link|mailto:greg@gregfolkert.net|greg], [link|http://www.iwethey.org/ed_curry|REMEMBER ED CURRY!] @ iwetheyFreedom is not FREE. Yeah, but 10s of Trillions of US Dollars? SELECT * FROM scog WHERE ethics > 0;
0 rows returned.
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Post #278,052
3/12/07 5:28:54 AM
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Absolutely.
I spent some time programming a school's admin system. Whilst we never encountered that problem with addresses, we did have to accomodate international formats. And how addresses mapped to individuals and how individuals made up families were very complex problems. I still don't think we ever truly explored what was possible with that, although what we did come up with vastly better than all the various 'family' concepts of our main competitors.
Wade.
Is it enough to love
Is it enough to breathe
Somebody rip my heart out
And leave me here to bleed
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Is it enough to die
Somebody save my life
I'd rather be Anything but Ordinary
Please
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-- "Anything but Ordinary" by Avril Lavigne. | · my ·
· [link|http://staticsan.livejournal.com/|blog] ·
· [link|http://yceran.org/|website] · |
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Post #278,053
3/12/07 6:38:44 AM
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Lemme guess - the field is defined as a numeric type?
So much stuff should just be modeled as text. Address conventions are particularly nasty - especially international addresses.
Phone numbers is another one that lots of people model using numeric type fields. Which really pisses off folks that paid big bucks for vanity numbers like 1-800-FLOWERS.
Then there are postal codes - which are alpha-numeric most places but strictly numeric in the US.
I got stung when I modeled page numbers in citations as text. Until I realized that prologs and stuff use small roman numerals for page numbers and some texts have alpha numeric page identifiers - 23-A for instance.
Text and foreign keys - that's almost all I use anymore for data types.
[link|http://www.blackbagops.net|Black Bag Operations Log]
[link|http://www.objectiveclips.com|Artificial Intelligence]
[link|http://www.badpage.info/seaside/html|Scrutinizer]
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Post #278,060
3/12/07 9:52:09 AM
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Tell me about it.
The apartment I'm living in now has an apartment number like this M1-4, If they forget the dash or put a space or do anything else I won't get the mail.
And my address is on Street Road. This is commonly mistyped, but I encountered one computer system that couldn't take it because it insisted on trying to correct it.
Between people mistyping and computer refusing to accept or trying to correct it, I have had a steady stream of problems with my mail since moving in.
Jay
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Post #278,098
3/12/07 10:51:29 PM
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Makes you want to find the joker who named the road ...
... and punch him in the head, doesn't it?
===
Kip Hawley is still an idiot.
===
Purveyor of Doc Hope's [link|http://DocHope.com|fresh-baked dog biscuits and pet treats].
[link|http://DocHope.com|http://DocHope.com]
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Post #278,100
3/12/07 11:02:01 PM
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You insulting Jeremiah Street, the founder of Town City?
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Post #278,112
3/13/07 2:42:22 AM
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Is that in Statesota?
-- [link|mailto:greg@gregfolkert.net|greg], [link|http://www.iwethey.org/ed_curry|REMEMBER ED CURRY!] @ iwetheyFreedom is not FREE. Yeah, but 10s of Trillions of US Dollars? SELECT * FROM scog WHERE ethics > 0;
0 rows returned.
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Post #278,121
3/13/07 9:36:00 AM
3/13/07 9:36:35 AM
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Agree w/ Drook
What the fuck was that "street planner" thinking? Oh, that's right...thinking is strictly optional (and even discouraged) in that line of work.
jb4
"It's hard for me, you know, living in this beautiful White House, to give you a firsthand assessment."
— George W. Bush, when asked if he believed Iraq was in a state of civil war (Newsweek, 26 Feb 07)
Edited by jb4
March 13, 2007, 09:36:35 AM EDT
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Post #280,904
4/7/07 2:54:19 PM
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Re: Database's worst enemy: real life
Why would any one model a "a building number" as a real number.
When does anyone ever need to apply addition, substraction or multiplcation
to a building number
Same goes for telephone numbers! The telephone keybad have characters, mobile keypads have characters of sometimes both a local langugae + english/latin, why would the type that store the result be just numbers.
Telephone numbers can be thought be casted to real number from the receiving variable, plus why would a dialer for example only handler numbers and not map the more elaborate keypad!!!
Strings and Numbers and primitive data types, you should rely more on
abstract data types, think more about ur types
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I, being, poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
W. B. Yeats, He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
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Post #280,918
4/7/07 6:23:52 PM
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Building numbers are ordered elements
Think about scheduling a delivery route.
If you treat them as strictly alpha, then you'll have #10 sorted with the #100's. Strictly numeric doesn't work either.
They don't exactly fit either scenario.
I4 NOW!
Impeach, Indict, Incarcerate, Inject
Bush, Cheney, Gonzalez, Rumsfeld, Rove, Rice
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Post #280,924
4/7/07 7:43:43 PM
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And if you want to code a war-dialer, you need phone math
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Post #280,938
4/7/07 10:12:00 PM
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And if you're in Japan
if you're using Western-style street centric code, it ain't going to work.
--Tony
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Post #280,979
4/8/07 8:09:58 AM
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Street addresses are a real PITA
You need to be able to input as text, munge the non-conforming addresses and convert to a number for sorting. Not to mention keeping track of street name modifiers such directions: North Main, South Main, 5th Street, 5th Ave. Or even streets with different names for different parts of the street. Or one street name for what is essentially two different roads.
Efficient delivery routes don't always follow street number order, so that's a different attribute. If you need any kind of history, street numbers and even street names do occasionally change.
Alot of details for something so simple as an American style address. And because they are so simple everyone expects them to be handled flawlessly.
Seamus
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