[Year 12 IT Apps] Data type for postcode

[Matheson, Geoff J]

I'd replace the word "formula" in that little rule with the word "calculation". When I describe it for students, I talk about whether you would ever run a calculation on the field. If so: number, if not: text.


Geoff Matheson
Senior Campus Reports Co-ordinator
[cid:3392357119_3062448]

From: <Turner>, William S <turner.william.s at edumail.vic.gov.au<mailto:turner.william.s at edumail.vic.gov.au>>
Reply-To: Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List <itapps at edulists.com.au<mailto:itapps at edulists.com.au>>
Date: Thursday, 30 May 2013 9:45 AM
To: Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List <itapps at edulists.com.au<mailto:itapps at edulists.com.au>>
Subject: Re: [Year 12 IT Apps] Data type for postcode

Hi Mark

How about a situation where a student was given a list of towns and their postcodes, and by examining their postcode, they were required to align the town to an Australian state? Would you consider that to be applying a formula to a postcode?

I know the same approach could be used by examining the first character of a “text” postcode, but are we still applying a formula to a postcode?

Bill Turner
Dandenong High

From: itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au<mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au> [mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of Mark Scott
Sent: Thursday, 30 May 2013 9:18 AM
To: 'Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [Year 12 IT Apps] Data type for postcode

There is a quite simple rule that I teach my students

Data is formatted as a number only if it might be used in a formula.

Postcodes and phone numbers won’t ever be used in a formula so they are text.

Mark Scott
Luther College

Mark Scott
Daily Administrator
Luther
Plymouth Road
Croydon Hills Victoria 3136
Luther
Telephone (03) 9724 2000
Direct Line (03) 9724 2023
www.luther.vic.edu.au<http://www.luther.vic.edu.au/>

[Luther College]<http://www.luther.vic.edu.au/>

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From:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au<mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au> [mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of Litsa Tzelepis
Sent: Thursday, 30 May 2013 9:05 AM
To: 'Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [Year 12 IT Apps] Data type for postcode

Just jumping in at the last minute – for what it’s worth and sorry if I missed something.

Can’t we just look at the data provided in a question and decide form there?
Like if a question said – what data type is this 0410 555 555 – that would be text; 0410555555 – that would be number.
It’s pretty impossible to determine every possible scenario that a data item can be? Especially a postcode.

A data type question should not be that complicated.

Litsa

From:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au<mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au> [mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of Wayne Eglinton
Sent: Wednesday, 29 May 2013 9:15 PM
To: Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Year 12 IT Apps] Data type for postcode

FYI

living in the NT ... I'm fully aware of the 0 lead character in postcodes. Too bad web-developers don't consider using text for post/zipcodes fields ... often we can't subscribe etc... It can seriously be a pain - and we just go to another website... bad for their business!!!

Food for thought for you & your students.

Regards,

Wayne Eglinton

OLSH College
P.O. Box 2508
Traeger Ave.
Alice Springs NT 0871

P 08 8950 8555
M 0406 357 972

________________________________
From:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au<mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au> [itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au<mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au>] On Behalf Of Stuart Walkerden (STUW) [stuw at huntingtower.vic.edu.au<mailto:stuw at huntingtower.vic.edu.au>]
Sent: 28 May 2013 13:20
To: Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Year 12 IT Apps] Data type for postcode
I reckon if it looks like a number, treat it as a number and use a number field type. Whether you perform calculations on it or not is irrelevant. I have always told my students to  use postcode as a number and phone as text to allow for leading 0. I wasn’t aware of NT postcodes. I may have to change my line.

Stuart Walkerden
Huntingtower

From:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au<mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au> [mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of Athena Spyratos
Sent: Tuesday, 28 May 2013 7:47 AM
To: Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: [Year 12 IT Apps] Data type for postcode

Fellow IT teachers.
Do we declare the data type for Postcode as number or text? In database, if we apply a validation rule for a Victorian postcode as being between 3000 and 3999, then we declare it as a number. However going over one of the past exam multiple choice questions, the answer they wanted for the data type for Postcode was text. Which answer are the examiners looking for?
Athena


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