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.

> I just want a phone number input box that will strip dashes for me.

So you don't actually want the input box to strip dashes, right? It sounds like you want more sites to accept dashes.

Very true. I wasn't very precise in my original comment.

What’s jarring is that a field for phone numbers can’t parse dashes and spaces.