C#•13mo ago

✅ Formatting A Phone Number

I'm trying to create a function that will format a universal phone number. What I mean is if the user saves an australian phone number, then when the program goes to display that phone number it will format it appropriately, the same for other countries and american numbers too. I asked ChatGPT and it gave me

using System;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;

class PhoneNumberFormatter
{
    public static string FormatUniversalPhoneNumber(string phoneNumber)
    {
        // Remove non-numeric characters from the input
        string cleanedNumber = Regex.Replace(phoneNumber, "[^0-9]", "");

        // Check if the number has a country code and format accordingly
        if (cleanedNumber.Length > 10)
        {
            return $"+{cleanedNumber.Substring(0, cleanedNumber.Length - 10)} " +
                   $"{cleanedNumber.Substring(cleanedNumber.Length - 10, 3)}-" +
                   $"{cleanedNumber.Substring(cleanedNumber.Length - 7, 3)}-" +
                   $"{cleanedNumber.Substring(cleanedNumber.Length - 4, 4)}";
        }
        else if (cleanedNumber.Length == 10)
        {
            return $"{cleanedNumber.Substring(0, 3)}-{cleanedNumber.Substring(3, 3)}-" +
                   $"{cleanedNumber.Substring(6, 4)}";
        }
        else
        {
            // If the number doesn't follow the standard length, return the cleaned number as is
            return cleanedNumber;
        }
    }

    static void Main()
    {
        string phoneNumber = "+1 (555) 123-4567";
        string formattedNumber = FormatUniversalPhoneNumber(phoneNumber);
        Console.WriteLine($"Formatted number: {formattedNumber}");
    }
}

using System;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;

class PhoneNumberFormatter
{
    public static string FormatUniversalPhoneNumber(string phoneNumber)
    {
        // Remove non-numeric characters from the input
        string cleanedNumber = Regex.Replace(phoneNumber, "[^0-9]", "");

        // Check if the number has a country code and format accordingly
        if (cleanedNumber.Length > 10)
        {
            return $"+{cleanedNumber.Substring(0, cleanedNumber.Length - 10)} " +
                   $"{cleanedNumber.Substring(cleanedNumber.Length - 10, 3)}-" +
                   $"{cleanedNumber.Substring(cleanedNumber.Length - 7, 3)}-" +
                   $"{cleanedNumber.Substring(cleanedNumber.Length - 4, 4)}";
        }
        else if (cleanedNumber.Length == 10)
        {
            return $"{cleanedNumber.Substring(0, 3)}-{cleanedNumber.Substring(3, 3)}-" +
                   $"{cleanedNumber.Substring(6, 4)}";
        }
        else
        {
            // If the number doesn't follow the standard length, return the cleaned number as is
            return cleanedNumber;
        }
    }

    static void Main()
    {
        string phoneNumber = "+1 (555) 123-4567";
        string formattedNumber = FormatUniversalPhoneNumber(phoneNumber);
        Console.WriteLine($"Formatted number: {formattedNumber}");
    }
}

this code, but I'm not sure if it's what I'm looking for. Any tips? Thanks

50 Replies

Jimmacle•13mo ago

i personally use a C# port of google's libphonenumber for this kind of thing

Jimmacle•13mo ago

https://github.com/twcclegg/libphonenumber-csharp

GitHub

GitHub - twcclegg/libphonenumber-csharp: Offical C# port of https:/...

Offical C# port of https://github.com/googlei18n/libphonenumber - GitHub - twcclegg/libphonenumber-csharp: Offical C# port of https://github.com/googlei18n/libphonenumber

Mekasu0124OP•13mo ago

ok. illl have to do some messing around with that to figure out how to use it

Jimmacle•13mo ago

it might be overkill for your application, but i also validate phone numbers (as much as possible without actually calling them) and there's no way i'm maintaining that myself when

Mekasu0124OP•13mo ago

well it may be a bit overkill. I was just looking for a way to format the numbers when displayed. I'm building a phone book application. The home screen shows all the user's stored contacts and I'm making a helper function to format the phone numbers as they're pulled from the database before being displayed. So like if they stored US phone numbers, it would format to +1 (123) 456-7890. If they stored an australian phone number then it would format and display like +61 (02) 123-4567 and same for like a British number +44 20 7123 4567 so basically no matter what the prefix is for the phone number, it would take that prefix, determine the necessary format for that countries phone number, and then format it appropriately. As per validation, that will happen on another screen before storing the number in the database. I need that too so that the user can only store valid phone numbers

Mayor McCheese•13mo ago

phone numbers, email addresses, street addresses, etc, they all suck at the global scale.

Mekasu0124OP•13mo ago

this library is actually pretty neat and does what I need it to, however, I just may need a bit of help getting to automatically determine how to format. So like an example

string swissNumberStr = "044 668 18 00";
PhoneNumber swissNumberProto = phoneUtil.Parse(swissNumberStr, "CH");
Console.WriteLine(phoneUtil.Format(swissNumberProto, PhoneNumberFormat.INTERNATIONAL));
Console.WriteLine(phoneUtil.Format(swissNumberProto, PhoneNumberFormat.NATIONAL));
Console.WriteLine(phoneUtil.Format(swissNumberProto, PhoneNumberFormat.E164));

string swissNumberStr = "044 668 18 00";
PhoneNumber swissNumberProto = phoneUtil.Parse(swissNumberStr, "CH");
Console.WriteLine(phoneUtil.Format(swissNumberProto, PhoneNumberFormat.INTERNATIONAL));
Console.WriteLine(phoneUtil.Format(swissNumberProto, PhoneNumberFormat.NATIONAL));
Console.WriteLine(phoneUtil.Format(swissNumberProto, PhoneNumberFormat.E164));

with this method, I would have to manually insert "CH" and INTERNATIONAL, NATIONAL, or E164 for formatting the number. Is there a way I can have this library, or create a helper function to, determine the phone numbers originality whether the user enters the numbers prefix +41 or not? like in that example, the +41 doesn't exist, but they used "CH" to get the origin of the number

Mekasu0124OP•13mo ago

Mekasu0124OP•13mo ago

so it used the "CH" to determine the numbers prefix. How could I get the program to do that automatically. Let's say I entered a US phone number (123) 456-7890. How could I get the function to recognize that it needs to be done like phoneUtil.Format(phoneNumber, "US") without having to manually put in the "US" part?

Mayor McCheese•13mo ago

I mean, this is why folks put a drop down on phone number entry for country you could have a dictionary, if I'm reading what you're asking correctly

Mekasu0124OP•13mo ago

I could do a drop down. That's not a bad idea, but then I would have to look up and manually type out every countries prefix

MODiX•13mo ago

Mayor McCheese

REPL Result: Success

var dictionary = new Dictionary<string, string>();
dictionary.Add("ch", "+41");
dictionary.Add("MS", "+##");

Console.WriteLine(dictionary["ch"]);

var dictionary = new Dictionary<string, string>();
dictionary.Add("ch", "+41");
dictionary.Add("MS", "+##");

Console.WriteLine(dictionary["ch"]);

Console Output

+41

+41

Compile: 624.913ms | Execution: 75.970ms | React with ❌ to remove this embed.

Mekasu0124OP•13mo ago

that's not a bad idea honestly

Mayor McCheese•13mo ago

you can json serialize a dictionary alternatively you can use "smart enums"

Mekasu0124OP•13mo ago

the only downfall to doing the dictionary is if the user doesn't enter a prefix, but I could always make that a required selection from a drop down. Just finding a library that contains all the countries prefixes would be beneficial ~~to that dictionary~~

Mayor McCheese•13mo ago

public class PhoneEnum
{
  public string Name {get; init;}
  public string Prefix {get;init;}
  public string DialCode {get;init;}
  private PhoneEnum(string name, string prefix, string dialCode)
  {
    Name = name;
    Prefix = prefix;
    DialCode = dialCode;
  }

  public readonly static Swiss(nameof(Swiss), "CH", "+44");
  public readonly static Martian(nameof(Martian), "MS", "+++");

  public string ToE164Number(string phoneNumber)
  {
    return // do stuff here
  }
}

string e164PhoneNumber = PhoneEnum.Swiss.ToE164Number(somePhoneNumber);

public class PhoneEnum
{
  public string Name {get; init;}
  public string Prefix {get;init;}
  public string DialCode {get;init;}
  private PhoneEnum(string name, string prefix, string dialCode)
  {
    Name = name;
    Prefix = prefix;
    DialCode = dialCode;
  }

  public readonly static Swiss(nameof(Swiss), "CH", "+44");
  public readonly static Martian(nameof(Martian), "MS", "+++");

  public string ToE164Number(string phoneNumber)
  {
    return // do stuff here
  }
}

string e164PhoneNumber = PhoneEnum.Swiss.ToE164Number(somePhoneNumber);

There's some fancy packages that make smart enums

Mekasu0124OP•13mo ago

I think it would be easier if I had the user select the numbers prefix from a list tbh

Mayor McCheese•13mo ago

yep

Mekasu0124OP•13mo ago

so like they would select the prefix from the list, and then I would use that prefix against the dictionary to pull the country 2 letter code for the format so now to create a function to generate a dictionary of all countries codes and prefixes

Mekasu0124OP•13mo ago

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/34837436/uwp-get-country-phone-number-prefix#:~:text=Some%20copy%2Dpasta%20and%20little%20language%20changes%20later%2C%20we%20have%20the%20following%20code%3A I found this, thoughts?

Stack Overflow

UWP get country phone number prefix

I want to get the country prefix for phone numbers. e.g. if I am in the US and I enter the number 0123 - 456, I want to get the prefix +1 or 001, so the number in the end is (+1) 0123 - 456 If I a...

Mekasu0124OP•13mo ago

if I use that list, I can just pull those prefixes from that dictionary and display them and use them for the formatting

Mayor McCheese•13mo ago

I would at least serialize the list the world is a troubled place and things change globally more often than folks think 7 digit phone numbers became the US standard in 1967 for instance but you're concerned more about dial codes

Mekasu0124OP•13mo ago

so given that I used that list from the stack overflow, how would I serialize it? Like what do you mean by that?

MODiX•13mo ago

Mayor McCheese

REPL Result: Success

var dictionary = new Dictionary<string, string>();

    dictionary.Add("AC", "+247");
    dictionary.Add("AD", "+376");
    dictionary.Add("AE", "+971");
    dictionary.Add("AF", "+93");
    dictionary.Add("AG", "+1-268");
    dictionary.Add("AI", "+1-264");
    dictionary.Add("AL", "+355");
    dictionary.Add("AM", "+374");
    dictionary.Add("AN", "+599");
    dictionary.Add("AO", "+244");
    dictionary.Add("ZW", "+263");

System.Text.Json.JsonSerializer.Serialize(dictionary)

var dictionary = new Dictionary<string, string>();

    dictionary.Add("AC", "+247");
    dictionary.Add("AD", "+376");
    dictionary.Add("AE", "+971");
    dictionary.Add("AF", "+93");
    dictionary.Add("AG", "+1-268");
    dictionary.Add("AI", "+1-264");
    dictionary.Add("AL", "+355");
    dictionary.Add("AM", "+374");
    dictionary.Add("AN", "+599");
    dictionary.Add("AO", "+244");
    dictionary.Add("ZW", "+263");

System.Text.Json.JsonSerializer.Serialize(dictionary)

Result: string

{"AC":"\u002B247","AD":"\u002B376","AE":"\u002B971","AF":"\u002B93","AG":"\u002B1-268","AI":"\u002B1-264","AL":"\u002B355","AM":"\u002B374","AN":"\u002B599","AO":"\u002B244","ZW":"\u002B263"}

{"AC":"\u002B247","AD":"\u002B376","AE":"\u002B971","AF":"\u002B93","AG":"\u002B1-268","AI":"\u002B1-264","AL":"\u002B355","AM":"\u002B374","AN":"\u002B599","AO":"\u002B244","ZW":"\u002B263"}

Compile: 613.139ms | Execution: 46.191ms | React with ❌ to remove this embed.

MODiX•13mo ago

Mayor McCheese

REPL Result: Success

var dictionary = new Dictionary<string, string>();

dictionary.Add("AC", "+247");
dictionary.Add("AD", "+376");
dictionary.Add("AE", "+971");
dictionary.Add("AF", "+93");
dictionary.Add("AG", "+1-268");
dictionary.Add("AI", "+1-264");
dictionary.Add("AL", "+355");
dictionary.Add("AM", "+374");
dictionary.Add("AN", "+599");
dictionary.Add("AO", "+244");
dictionary.Add("ZW", "+263");

var s = System.Text.Json.JsonSerializer.Serialize(dictionary); 
var d = System.Text.Json.JsonSerializer.Deserialize<Dictionary<string, string>>(s);
d["AC"]

var dictionary = new Dictionary<string, string>();

dictionary.Add("AC", "+247");
dictionary.Add("AD", "+376");
dictionary.Add("AE", "+971");
dictionary.Add("AF", "+93");
dictionary.Add("AG", "+1-268");
dictionary.Add("AI", "+1-264");
dictionary.Add("AL", "+355");
dictionary.Add("AM", "+374");
dictionary.Add("AN", "+599");
dictionary.Add("AO", "+244");
dictionary.Add("ZW", "+263");

var s = System.Text.Json.JsonSerializer.Serialize(dictionary); 
var d = System.Text.Json.JsonSerializer.Deserialize<Dictionary<string, string>>(s);
d["AC"]

Result: string

+247

+247

Compile: 641.178ms | Execution: 44.158ms | React with ❌ to remove this embed.

Mayor McCheese•13mo ago

so you just need a class that contains the dictionary, and can derserialize it

Mekasu0124OP•13mo ago

https://pastebin.com/PbVveRmn ok so in my playground, I turned it into a function, however, I don't think I have the return type correct. I can't have the function be a void and I'm not sure what return type it is

Mayor McCheese•13mo ago

so, I wasn't super clear probably the point of serializing is that you can store it in a file ( as a for instance )

Mekasu0124OP•13mo ago

would it be more efficient to store it in a file as opposed to just serializing and deserializing as needed on call?

Mayor McCheese•13mo ago

so you'd serialize the dictionary because countries to change, not frequently, but dial codes might change, countries might change, go away, change, etc. so then you're just replacing "a file" if you don't care about that and want to hard code it that's probably fine too the last country to get created was in 2011

Mekasu0124OP•13mo ago

ok I'm with you

Mayor McCheese•13mo ago

also, depending on your audience you might want more or less dial codes

Mekasu0124OP•13mo ago

apologies. discord took a crap. https://pastebin.com/bX8tnH8a I turned it into a class that I could use to not only get all of the prefixes for the drop down list, but to get dictionary from the json file and be able to match the selected prefix from the drop down to the matching country code for the formatter and create the file if it doesn't exists on run time. Thoughts?

Mayor McCheese•13mo ago

I'll look at it deeper in a bit

Jimmacle•13mo ago

you probably don't want to read in the file every time you call those methods

Mekasu0124OP•13mo ago

ok what would be a better option?

Jimmacle•13mo ago

caching it only load it if you haven't already loaded it before

Mekasu0124OP•13mo ago

ok. you can see my updated code at https://github.com/mekasu0124/MeksPhoneBook would you mind viewing it and telling me which file would be best for that and how I would do that?

Jimmacle•13mo ago

you'd add a property to keep your deserialized object and in your method have something to the effect of return MyObject ??= LoadMyObject();

Mekasu0124OP•13mo ago

also, I have .vs in my .gitignore but it won't ignore that folder for some reason

Jimmacle•13mo ago

if you already commited files from that folder git will continue tracking them until deleted

Mekasu0124OP•13mo ago

deleted from the repo or the workspace? I don't think I'm supposed to delete them?

Jimmacle•13mo ago

the repo then delete them, commit, then put them back it's just VS metadata either way, it won't break anything permanently hence not needing to commit them in the first place

Mekasu0124OP•13mo ago

oh ok. I got you

Mayor McCheese•13mo ago

The point of serializing the data is to not to have to redeploy code each time you make a change to data like that if this is a website, do you want to redeploy because you remove some contries, or add some countries?

Mekasu0124OP•13mo ago

I do apologize, but I don't think I'm fully understanding with this part. Where would I do this at? Like which file and how? I don't believe I've done this before. My CountryCodes class handles creating the file and then I just load the file and pull the resources I need

public class CountryCodes
{
    public void CreateCodesFile()
    {
        var serializedData = JsonSerializer.Serialize(CountryCodeDictionary());
        File.WriteAllText("country_codes.json", serializedData);
    }
    public List<string> GetAllPrefixes() {...}
    public Dictionary<string, string> GetAllCountryCodes() {...}
    public Dictionary<string, string> CountryCodeDictionary() {...}

public class CountryCodes
{
    public void CreateCodesFile()
    {
        var serializedData = JsonSerializer.Serialize(CountryCodeDictionary());
        File.WriteAllText("country_codes.json", serializedData);
    }
    public List<string> GetAllPrefixes() {...}
    public Dictionary<string, string> GetAllCountryCodes() {...}
    public Dictionary<string, string> CountryCodeDictionary() {...}

Mayor McCheese•13mo ago

the easiest way is to have your class take a dictionary in the constructor and disconnect the two aspects

Jimmacle•13mo ago

yeah, if you don't want to lazy load then just load it in/before the constructor and i would personally deploy the "default" list as an embedded resource instead of manually creating it in code, then copy it to the filesystem if one doesn't exist

Mayor McCheese•13mo ago

again, this is regulatory/technical data that isn't subject to change, you can viably hard code it as well; it'll change very infrequently

Mekasu0124OP•13mo ago

ok. do you mind if I show you the path of usage for the CountryCodes? Maybe that can help better explain it and help me figure this out more easily?

public override void OnFrameworkInitializationCompleted()
{
    base.OnFrameworkInitializationCompleted();

    if (ApplicationLifetime is IClassicDesktopStyleApplicationLifetime desktop)
    {
        var db = new Database();
        var cc = new CountryCodes();
        var gvs = new GithubService();

        if (!File.Exists("main.db")) { db.CreateDatabase(); }
        if (!File.Exists("country_codes.json")) { cc.CreateCodesFile(); }

        desktop.MainWindow = new MainWindow
        {
            DataContext = new MainWindowViewModel(db, gvs),
        };
    }
}

public override void OnFrameworkInitializationCompleted()
{
    base.OnFrameworkInitializationCompleted();

    if (ApplicationLifetime is IClassicDesktopStyleApplicationLifetime desktop)
    {
        var db = new Database();
        var cc = new CountryCodes();
        var gvs = new GithubService();

        if (!File.Exists("main.db")) { db.CreateDatabase(); }
        if (!File.Exists("country_codes.json")) { cc.CreateCodesFile(); }

        desktop.MainWindow = new MainWindow
        {
            DataContext = new MainWindowViewModel(db, gvs),
        };
    }
}

ok so the code block above is my App.axaml.cs. When the program starts, it checks if the json file holding the country codes exists, and if it doesn't then it calls to create the codes, and then that class instance is passed to main window view model.

public class MainWindowViewModel : ViewModelBase
{
    ViewModelBase _content;
    private Database _db;
    private GithubService _gvs;
    private CountryCodes _cc;

    private ContactModel _selectedContact;

    public MainWindowViewModel(Database db, GithubService gvs, CountryCodes cc)
    {
        _db = db;
        _gvs = gvs;
        _cc = cc;
        CheckForUpdate(_db, _cc);
    }
    
    public void ShowHomeScreen(Database db, CountryCodes cc)
    {
        var vm = new HomeScreenViewModel(db);

        Observable.Merge(
            vm.NewContact
                .Do(_ => CreateNewUser(db, cc))
            )
            .Take(1)
            .Subscribe();
        Content = vm;
    }

    public void CreateNewUser(Database db, CountryCodes cc)
    {
        var vm = new NewUserViewModel(db, cc);
        Content = vm;
    }

public class MainWindowViewModel : ViewModelBase
{
    ViewModelBase _content;
    private Database _db;
    private GithubService _gvs;
    private CountryCodes _cc;

    private ContactModel _selectedContact;

    public MainWindowViewModel(Database db, GithubService gvs, CountryCodes cc)
    {
        _db = db;
        _gvs = gvs;
        _cc = cc;
        CheckForUpdate(_db, _cc);
    }
    
    public void ShowHomeScreen(Database db, CountryCodes cc)
    {
        var vm = new HomeScreenViewModel(db);

        Observable.Merge(
            vm.NewContact
                .Do(_ => CreateNewUser(db, cc))
            )
            .Take(1)
            .Subscribe();
        Content = vm;
    }

    public void CreateNewUser(Database db, CountryCodes cc)
    {
        var vm = new NewUserViewModel(db, cc);
        Content = vm;
    }

and in my MainWindowViewModel that CountryCodes cc is then passed to the view model for NewUserViewModel

public class NewUserViewModel : ViewModelBase
{
    private Database _db;
    private CountryCodes _cc;

    public List<string> _prefList;
    public string _pref;
    public string _fn;
    public string _ln;
    public List<string> _suffList;
    public string _suff;
    public string _em;
    public List<string> _phnPrefix;
    public string _phnm;
    public string _str;
    public string _ct;
    public string _st;
    public string _zip;
    public string _addr;
    public string _dob;

    public NewUserViewModel(Database db, CountryCodes cc)
    {
        _db = db;
        _cc = cc;

        PrefList = GetPrefixList();
        SuffList = GetSuffixList();
        PhonePrefix = _cc.GetAllPrefixes();


        Back = ReactiveCommand.Create(() => { });
    }

public class NewUserViewModel : ViewModelBase
{
    private Database _db;
    private CountryCodes _cc;

    public List<string> _prefList;
    public string _pref;
    public string _fn;
    public string _ln;
    public List<string> _suffList;
    public string _suff;
    public string _em;
    public List<string> _phnPrefix;
    public string _phnm;
    public string _str;
    public string _ct;
    public string _st;
    public string _zip;
    public string _addr;
    public string _dob;

    public NewUserViewModel(Database db, CountryCodes cc)
    {
        _db = db;
        _cc = cc;

        PrefList = GetPrefixList();
        SuffList = GetSuffixList();
        PhonePrefix = _cc.GetAllPrefixes();


        Back = ReactiveCommand.Create(() => { });
    }

and in my NewUserViewModel (which should have been named new contact) uses that _cc to get the list of number prefixes from the file like +1, +41, etc. So with me passing the class around like I am, and using that class instance to call the functions appropriate to the screen, that's how I get access to the information. I have updated my code on my repo https://github.com/mekasu0124/MeksPhoneBook. I just don't guess I'm understanding what you guys mean. What file would I cache my json file in, and how would I cache it? I do apologize for seeming stupid. I hope I don't upset you guys

Gaming

Programming

✅ Formatting A Phone Number