Zip Code/Leading Zero's search problem

rubyonrails-talk
1

Hey

I'm running into an small issue with searching a zip codes table, where some zip codes contain 1 or more leading zeros. This problem could be fixed with some database level hacking -- but I'd rather attack the problem in rails.

Zip codes are stored in the zip code table with leading zeros dropped. 01234 becomes 1234. Thus, when someone searches via the website for 012345, it will not find any results.

I'm looking to write a method (probably in the Zipcode model) to remove any leading zeros from an incoming search request, before it gets passed into sql calls.

I looked into callbacks, but those appears to only be useful when creating/saving/updating/deleting data, whereas I need to address searching.

Any suggestions on the correct/best way to do this? Again, I'm looking for a rails solution, not a database level solution.

Thanks

2

reg exp

3

Regex fails on validation even.

Plus just saying reg exp is not very helpful. I’m not sure how to trap the call before it reaching sql (assuming that is the best way to do it) which is really what I’m trying to figure out.

Sidebar:

validates_format_of :zip_code, :with => /\A[0-9]{5}\Z/i,

fails on something like this 03062.

4

Maybe not ideal, but you could always just call to_i on the parameter that gets passed into your find method. That should strip it.

-philip

5

be more explicit in your reg exp ie the first numeric must be [1-9]

6

I ended up solving the problem using Philip’s solution (thanks).

Curtis, thanks for the recommendation, but zero is a valid leading value for some zip codes, so only doing a range of 1-9 wouldn’t be as tight of a check as I would’ve liked.

Thank you all for your help and replies.

7

Ahh

Jason - Thank you - If i understand your problem in correctly - you wanted to turn the value into the database into a non-zipcode format to allow for people to search without including the leading zero?

Also - thank you for the information about zero being a leading diget for zip codes.