What's the right way to represent phone numbers?
integer, java, phone-number
Solution
Use `String`. Aside from anything else, you won't be able to store leading zeroes if you use integers. You definitely shouldn't use `int` (too small) `float` or `double` (too much risk of data loss - see below); `long` or `BigInteger` could be appropriate (aside from the leading zeroes problem), but frankly I'd go with `String`. That way you can also store whatever dashes or spaces the user has entered to make it easier to remember the number, if you want to.
In terms of the "data loss" mentioned above for `float` and `double` - `float` definitely doesn't have enough precision; `double` could work if you're happy that you'll never need more than 16 digits (a couple fewer than you get with `long`) but you would need to be very, very careful that anywhere you convert the value back from `double` to `string`, you got the exact value. Many formatting conversions will give you an approximation which may be accurate to, say, 10 significant digits - but you'd want an exact integer. Basically, using floating point for phone numbers is a fundamentally bad idea. If you have to use a fixed-width numeric type, use a `long`, but ideally, avoid it entirely.
Problem
I'm having trouble representing a mobile number in one of my applications. I was wondering if there is an Integer class that will allow you to store such a number starting with 0417254482. Perhaps using a string be a more appropriate? At present when I'm trying to use represent a phone number with ints, doubles longs I seem to store random numbers and not the numbers I meant to store.