Sometimes I feel weird coding zip codes as strings but this is a great example why. If my program ever treats a zip code like a number I would like it to throw an error. At least in this case the error looks like an accident.
It's another social sciences paper but in this case a co-author has requested a retraction over his strong belief that the paper includes fabricated data. The retraction request has been denied. It differs from this paper in that the data anomalies look intentional.
My rule of thumb is that anything that’s not part of a calculation will be a string. Any chance I ever want to multiply a zip code? Doubtful. String, it is.
> If my program ever treats a zip code like a number I would like it to throw an error.
One interesting thing you can do though, is sort by zipcode. This sorts your mail from East to West in the US. You can use that as a rough estimate of shipping time.
On topic, from yesterday: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21067764
It's another social sciences paper but in this case a co-author has requested a retraction over his strong belief that the paper includes fabricated data. The retraction request has been denied. It differs from this paper in that the data anomalies look intentional.