RE: Checking for replication of characters in a field

My employer has run name capture (get customer's name and address)
contests in stores a few times.  People are very ingenious sometimes and
incredibly dense sometimes when it comes to putting bogus data in text
fields where they can type anything.  There was one instance where
everyone at a store was using the same nonexistent but ZIP4 correct
street address.  Since multiple names at the same address don't
necessarily mean they're the same household--apartment or office
building--we mailed quite a few catalogues to the bogus address.  If
they hadn't been mailed at the extra charge for address correction it
might have been quite a while before anyone noticed.  We do have some
specific text strings that cause an address to be thrown out. 

The people who take phone orders are required to ask the customer for
the source code printed in the address label on their catalogue.  There
is also a source code to denote unknown for cases where the customer
says "I want to buy 20 elephant tusk brushes and I don't have a
catalogue with me."  More than one person has discovered that they could
take orders faster if they didn't bother to ask and entered the unknown
source code.

Then there's the saga of the dirty names--I. P. Freely et al.--people
use to make catalogue requests and the management requirement that they
be eliminated.  There really is a city in Louisiana called "Eros."  

If I were you, I'd look at historical data and build a file of
completely bogus entries that have already been used and really do make
no sense.  People in the appropriate department could update it
periodically.

<><><>-----Original Message-----
<><><>From: rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
<><><>[mailto:rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Eric A. Wolf
<><><>Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2005 1:07 PM
<><><>To: RPG programming on the AS400 / iSeries
<><><>Subject: Re: Checking for replication of characters in a field
<><><>
<><><>Thanks for each of your inputs - all replies are valid.
<><><>
<><><>1)    The reason for making it mandatory is because since
<><><>they were not
<><><>entering anything, I need to force them to enter something.
<><><>2)    The system already date/time/user stamps so I may
<><><>write a report to
<><><>show the users that are not doing there job.
<><><>3)    They could enter an invalid name, but the customer
<><><>may refuse the
<><><>shipment (which costs the company more money) and I could
<><><>        also write
<><><>a report on all returned shipments, link it back to the
<><><>original order/order taker, etc.
<><><>4)    Checking for more than 3 of the same contiguous
<><><>characters (using the
<><><>token/array element) idea might work when they enter
<><><>"AAAAAAAA", "xxxxxxx" or "999999999", etc.
<><><>
<><><>Thanks again...
<><><>Eric
<><><>--
<><><>This is the RPG programming on the AS400 / iSeries
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<><><>

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