Glide needs better handling of leading zeros / ZIP code pains

[Rasha]

There are roughly 3443 US zip codes with a leading zero, 230 with two leading zeros.

• If a zip code is given conditional formatting (five zeros) in GS, the data editor displays 4 digits (shaves the 0)

• If the zip code column is formatted as plain text before data is entered, the data editor displays all 5 digits.

Using a number entry field

• If no value is in that cell, and a zip code with a leading zero is entered:
  – Initially you get 5 digits in preview, 4 digits in data editor, 4 digits in Sheets.
  – On sync, you’ll get 4 digits across the board.

Using a text entry field

Leading zeros are preserved across preview, data editor, and GS; but text characters can be inadvertently entered.

This is not a quirk suitable for a template column fix…

[Gabriel_Sobral]

Sure! I think that problem would be solved very easily if field masking were implemented on Glide. This would solve two problems: Validation and input formatting.

[Rasha]

Yup. UI improvements (e.g. status bars, spacers) are nice but this seems so essential. ZIP codes come with their own set of issues which I’ve been able to mitigate to a small extent on a small-state level via computed columns. But it’s not scalable for all 41,702 ZIPs without an alternative data source.