Practical International Data Management - field lengths

Table of Contents


Fields in data tables need to be long enough to contain the required data, without abbreviation, and this is longer than is usually expected or catered for. For example, fields allowing only 30 characters for a surname are common but unable to take many long names common throughout the world, such as muslim names.

Examples


Processing


Depending on how a name is stored in your data file, we advise at least these field lengths:


A company name field should be at least 150 characters long. A job title field should be at least 100 characters long. Thoroughfare name fields, depending on the level of data fragmentation, should not be shorter than 100 characters long. The longest postal code currently in use in the world is 10 digits long

Resources




Practical International Data Management Online.  A free resource from GRC Data Intelligence. For comments, questions or feedback: pidm@grcdi.nl