Goal This query identifies a semantic mismatch in data type selection for columns intended to store telephone numbers. It flags columns whose identifiers imply phone number content (e.g., names containing "phone", "mobile", "telef") but are defined with non-textual data types (e.g., INTEGER, NUMERIC, BIGINT). Telephone numbers are semantically strings, as they may contain leading zeros, international prefixes (+), and formatting characters (-, (), ext.), and are not subject to arithmetic operations. Storing them as numeric types leads to data loss (truncation of leading zeros) and formatting inflexibility.
Notes The query considers both column names in English and Estonian.
Type Problem detection Each row in the result could represent a flaw in the design
Reliability High Few or no false-positive results
License MIT (opens in new tab)
Fixing Suggestion Change the type of the column to VARCHAR(n) or TEXT. In the latter case add an additional constraint to the maximum value length permitted in the column.
Data Source INFORMATION_SCHEMA only
SQL Query 
SELECT table_schema, table_name, column_name,  data_type, character_maximum_length
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.columns
WHERE data_type!~'(character varying|text)' 
AND column_name~*'(phone|mobil|mobiil|telef|tel_nr)'
AND (table_schema, table_name) IN (SELECT table_schema, table_name
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.tables WHERE table_type='BASE TABLE') AND 
table_schema NOT IN (SELECT schema_name
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.schemata
WHERE schema_name<>'public' AND
schema_owner='postgres' AND schema_name IS NOT NULL)
ORDER BY table_schema, table_name, ordinal_position;

Collections

This query belongs to the following collections:

Find problems about base tables

A selection of queries that return information about the data types, field sizes, default values as well as general structure of base tables. Contains all the types of queries - problem detection, software measure, and general overview

Find problems automatically

Queries, that results point to problems in the database. Each query in the collection produces an initial assessment. However, a human reviewer has the final say as to whether there is a problem or not .

NameDescription
Find problems about base tablesA selection of queries that return information about the data types, field sizes, default values as well as general structure of base tables. Contains all the types of queries - problem detection, software measure, and general overview
Find problems automaticallyQueries, that results point to problems in the database. Each query in the collection produces an initial assessment. However, a human reviewer has the final say as to whether there is a problem or not .

Categories

This query is classified under the following categories:

Data types

Queries of this category provide information about the data types and their usage.

Result quality depends on names

Queries of this category use names (for instance, column names) to try to guess the meaning of a database object. Thus, the goodness of names determines the number of false positive and false negative results.

NameDescription
Data typesQueries of this category provide information about the data types and their usage.
Result quality depends on namesQueries of this category use names (for instance, column names) to try to guess the meaning of a database object. Thus, the goodness of names determines the number of false positive and false negative results.