[thelist] U.S. Cities

Luther, Ron Ron.Luther at hp.com
Thu Aug 11 16:54:07 CDT 2005


Dena Marchant asked:

>>Does anyone have suggestions on how to ensure that cities entered 
>>into a database through a web form will be:

>>1. spelled correctly
>>2. valid
>>3. not duplicates


Hi Dena!

Sure.  Make the users select from a tightly controlled list, 
drop-down widget, or series of cascading controls - then (and 
pretty much only then) you will have complete confidence 
that responses will be 'clean'.

Avoid text boxes, those always generate input problems ... 
sometimes spontaneously ... sometimes in concert with pesky 
users mucking up the data.


Good Luck!,

RonL.

(Who is also wondering which of Angola, New York - Angola, Indiana 
- and Angola, Pennsylvania is the duplicate.  Or which of 'St. Pete', 
'St. Petersburg', or 'Saint Petersburg' will be considered "valid".

Heck, I've never seen a decent sized company who could get their 
_internal_ staff to type *major* customer names and addresses in 
the same way - consistently!  I don't think I'd even try with an 
external audience.)


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