Splitting numeric litterals

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Fri, 16 Jul 2010 18:30:38 +0100, bart.c wrote:

>> It always makes me laugh when I receive an invoice from some company,
>> and the account number or invoice number is (e.g.) 1000000023456789.
>> Who do they think they're fooling?
> 
> I used to do that. Giving someone an invoice number, or product serial
> number, 000001 doesn't exactly give the impression of a thriving
> business.

Sure, and there's nothing wrong with (say) 1000234 as your starting 
figure. I know people who put the year as the starting four digits: 
201012345, say. But when you're a one-man company, is anyone going to 
think that you've genuinely put out 1000000000023456789 invoices to date?

Even if you're a giant multinational corporation, such a number is just 
ridiculous, and it is user-hostile, especially when dealing with the 
robot interface to their help-desk or paying bills by phone.

"Enter your invoice number followed by the hash-key."

1 *beep* 0 *beep* 0 *beep* 0 *beep* 0 *beep* 0 *beep* 0 *beep* 0 *beep* 0 
*beep* 0 *beep* 2 *beep* 3 *beep* 4 *beep* 5 *beep* 6 *beep* ... 7 *beep* 
8 * beep* 9 *beep* # *beep*

"Sorry, that invoice number is incorrect. Please try again."


-- 
Steven