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From: kfreytag@mdtf11.fnal.gov (Kelley Trombly-Freytag)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: International address format wanted
Message-ID: <857F*%@linac.fnal.gov>
Date: 30 Jan 91 16:07:46 GMT
Sender: daemon@linac.fnal.gov
Organization: Fermilab, Batavia, IL
Lines: 26
Originator: kfreytag@mdtf11


I have a question on how to store international addresses in a database.

I'm designing a database that is, in part, keeping track of manufacturers
of various types of hardware and third-party software.  These manufacturers 
can be based anywhere in the world, and therefore I need some idea of how to 
generalize address fields to cope with the myriad ways of representing
addresses in a table.

The most general idea I've come up with is:

            Field Name        Type
            -------------------------
            address_1        char(40)
            address_2        char(40)
            address_3        char(40)
            address_4        char(40)
            country          char(30)

Does anyone have any ideas, experience, or pointers to references I 
could use?

AtDhVaAnNkCsE
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Kelley Trombly-Freytag                 Internet: kfreytag@mdtf11.fnal.gov
Fremilab, Batavia, IL