But the changing isn't user visible. To the user, the phone number is the string "(416) 555-1270". If you want to store it differently in your database go ahe

But the changing isn't user visible. To the user, the phone number is the string "(416) 555-1270". If you want to store it differently in your database go ahead. But to the user, the phone number has dashes. In fact, on my phone, when I type in just the digits, my phone inserts the parens and dashes. Presumably, users consider this easier to read, and dare I say, more canonical. So, many applications can't handle phone number input in the exact form they display it to the user.