Allow number to start with ZERO when stored in mysql integer field

Question

I need to store phone numbers starting with 0 but whenever i try to store this in MySql table the starting ZERO is removed because no number start with Zero actually.

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Answer 1

Phone numbers are not really numbers in the sense that they aren't ordinal. They're just characters - they fact that they are numbers is incidental.

Store them in a varchar and move on :D