Question regarding formatting

[sw-dbrown]

Hi! Thanks for this package. I just found it and would like to use it in a project for consistent formatting of phone numbers.
After playing around with the package for a bit, a few questions came up.

Consider the following minimal example:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{phonenumbers}

\begin{document}

\noindent\phonenumber{+49 171 12345678}\\
\phonenumber{017112345678}

\setphonenumbers{%
    country=DE,
    foreign=international,%
    foreign-area-code-sep=space,%
    area-code-sep=space,%
    link=on%
}

\noindent\phonenumber{+49 171 12345678}\\
\phonenumber{017112345678}

\end{document}

Compiling this code leads to the following result:

To me, it looks like there is some odd formatting here. Why is the first '1' in the international number set apart from the reset of the area code?

It would also be useful to be, if it would be possible to have a little bit more control over the layout of the number. For example, if I would like to have the number formatted as follows: +49 171 / 123 456 78. Would you consider adding such a feature?

[wehro]

The formatting you got is as expected.
As described in section 3.1 of the manual all number components are divided into groups of two digits beginning from
the end in German numbers. If there is an odd number of digits, the first digit stands alone.
I have implemented this because it is the most common typographic convention in Germany.

I could of course implement other conventions, but then I would need the exact rules. It’s not enough to know how to group an eight digit subscriber number. What about longer or shorter numbers? Do you want a three digit grouping from the beginning? That would mean that the last digit would stand alone in a seven digit subscriber number. The same question arises for the area code. German area codes can have 3 to 6 digits, your example only uses a four digit area code (which is shortened to three digits in the international format). So please explain more precisely what you want.

Please note that country=DE, foreign-area-code-sep=space, and link=on are default values. So these options are not needed for your example. Furthermore, note that the area-code-sep option is useless as long as foreign is active.

It’s of course possible to talk German here if you prefer.

[sw-dbrown]

Hello wehro, thanks for your reply!

The formatting you got is as expected. As described in section 3.1 of the manual all number components are divided into groups of two digits beginning from the end in German numbers. If there is an odd number of digits, the first digit stands alone. I have implemented this because it is the most common typographic convention in Germany.

Ah, I see! Yes, that would explain the way it looks and I can understand the reasoning.

I could of course implement other conventions, but then I would need the exact rules. It’s not enough to know how to group an eight digit subscriber number. What about longer or shorter numbers? Do you want a three digit grouping from the beginning? That would mean that the last digit would stand alone in a seven digit subscriber number. The same question arises for the area code. German area codes can have 3 to 6 digits, your example only uses a four digit area code (which is shortened to three digits in the international format). So please explain more precisely what you want.

Hm, okay. The grouping rules are not that important for me and it is probably better to adhere to the established typographic convention. What remains of the feature request is the option to use a slash between area code and subscriber number. Do you think such an option would make sense or does it clash with to many conventions?

Please note that country=DE, foreign-area-code-sep=space, and link=on are default values. So these options are not needed for your example. Furthermore, note that the area-code-sep option is useless as long as foreign is active.

You are correct, my bad.

[wehro]

What remains of the feature request is the option to use a slash between area code and subscriber number. Do you think such an option would make sense or does it clash with to many conventions?

I would not recommend this formatting. From my point of view the most important gap in a phone number in the international format is the one between the country code and the rest of the number. A slash between the area code and the subscriber number would stress a different gap, which is less important.
Furthermore, the ITU-T Recommendation E.123 of the International Telecommunication Union recommends only to use spaces to structure numbers in the international format (section 9.1).

However, I have implemented the foreign-area-code-sep=brackets option, which is not in line with the ITU-T recommendation, because I sometimes saw brackets in international numbers.
I think I have never seen slashes in an international number, but if you think international numbers look better with a slash or you need it for some reason, it should be no problem to implement a new slash value for the foreign-area-code-sep option. This would not hurt as the default value would remain space. The new value would affect the countries DE and AT only, as FR, UK, and US do not use slashes even in the national format.

Please let me know if this is, what you need.

[igreil]

I would like to chime in here, if I may, and suggest an option to not group (i.e. separate by spaces) numbers with four or fewer digits (we also don't group years or zip codes, by the way). Prefixes, extensions and the number proper should all count as their own numbers in this context.

To give an example: The University of Graz's main fax number is +433163809030. I wish \phonenumber[country=AT,area-code-sep=brackets]{+43316380}[9030] would produce (0316) 380-9030 instead of (03⎵16) 3⎵80-90⎵30.

[wehro]

I can implement an option for this, of course (what I have in mind is something like group-min=5).
But you should be aware that the result my look inconsistent if you have telephone numbers of different lengths in your document. E. g., a five digit subscriber number would have one group of one digit and two groups of two (X XX XX), an eight digit subscriber number would have four groups of two digits (XX XX XX XX), whereas a four digit number would have only one group of four (XXXX). If this is acceptable for you, I am going to add the option.
Or do you prefer not to group at all the single parts of the number (area code, subscriber number, extension)?

[wehro]

The group-min option is contained in phonenumbers v2.4, which is now on CTAN.
Possible values are 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. Number parts whose length is below this value will not be grouped.
@igreil group-min=5 does what you want.

[igreil]

Sorry for not following up earlier, this somehow slipped through … Your solution looks very good, will test later today.