Normalize a Phone Number

Problem

Phone numbers arrive as "(704) 555-1234", "704.555.1234", or "+1 704 555 1234". You want one canonical E.164 string so lookups, dialing, and dedupe all work.

Request

curl -X POST https://zapinner.com/api/v1/normalize \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ZAPINNER_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "records": [{ "phone": "(704) 555-1234" }],
    "types": { "phone": "phone" }
  }'

Output

{ "data": [{ "phone": "+17045551234" }] }

Explanation

Declaring the field type as phone tells Normalize to parse and format to E.164 deterministically — the same input always yields the same output, so results are safe to cache and compare.

Error handling

An unparseable value is surfaced rather than silently corrupted. Handle the structured error (error.code, error.message, request_id) and route unfixable records to review.

Production considerations

• Numbers without a country code may be ambiguous — normalize as close to capture as possible, where you know the region.
• Normalize before matching or dedupe so comparisons are apples-to-apples.

Related APIs

Repair (runs normalize internally), Dedupe (compare normalized numbers).