What datatype should be used for storing phone numbers in SQL Server 2005?

Question

I need to store phone numbers in a table. Please suggest which datatype should I use? Wait. Please read on before you hit reply..

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Answer 1

Use SSIS to extract and process the information. That way you will have the processing of the XML files separated from SQL Server. You can also do the SSIS transformations on a separate server if needed. Store the phone numbers in a standard format using VARCHAR. NVARCHAR would be unnecessary since we are talking about numbers and maybe a couple of other chars, like '+', ' ', '(', ')' and '-'.