OK, so I checked with the AP style guide, and, believe it or not, they don’t seem to have a style for dealing with international phone numbers. Now, since I’m dealing with a European publication, I don’t need to explain that a “+” signifies a country code and that you have to dial an international prefix before the number and all that.
Here’s a number in Budapest: 3612111111
36 in the country code
1 is the city code
2111111 is the number
Would I write it out like this?
+36 (1) 211-1111
but I sometimes see:
(+36 1) 211-1111
(+361) 211-1111
+361 211-1111
etc
What about other countries that have a zero in the area code which you drop when dialling from an international source? I’m sure there’s somebody out there who deals with these kinds of numbers, and there must be some set style out there…sorry for the esoterism of this question, and thanks in advance.
There isn’t a single format to use since each country has it’s own way of doing phone numbers. Generally though, you don’t use punction other that the “+” in front of the country code; rather, use spaces to break up the number:
+36 1 211 1111
Sometimes you’ll see a “-” used instead of spaces:
+36-1-211-1111
I prefer without the dashes. A very good source for address formats in various countries is the Universal Postal Union. (Click on Postal Address and then Postal addressing systems to lookup up specific countries. Although the site deals mainly with address formats, most (if not all) countries have phone numbers for their postal service displayed so you can see the format.
If it indicates that the 1 would be omitted if you are in the same exchange. What’s trickier is that some places you need to add a zero in front if you are dialling locally. But usually the locals know this kind of stuff.