Just to get in my 2 cents. If it's a number, store it as a number. If it just LOOKS like a number (zip codes, phone numbers, govt ID numbers, etc) then store it as a char value of some sort.

I think what your client may have been trying to say, for example, is that you wouldn't want to (and can't) add one zip code to another. That would indeed make no sense. So a zip code isn't really a 'number' even though it uses 'numeric' values and looks like a number.

If you have ever seen zip codes entered as integers you've probably experienced the dropped leading zeroes problem or seen a zip like '34567-1234' come out like '33333'. :crazy: