How to unify the E.164 format before uploading valid TG numbers in the United States? Complete Guide to Cleaning Country Codes, Spaces, Brackets and Duplicate Numbers

In overseas marketing and Telegram community operations, US valid TG number is golden data to reach target users. However, many teams upload the screening numbers directly after getting the original numbers, but due to the confusing format, detection fails, misjudgments are invalid, and even budgets are wasted. The core problem often lies in the inconsistent number format. This article will teach you step by step how to clean messy numbers into standard E.164 format, and use tools such as KK-DATA to efficiently batch detect US TG activation data to truly reduce costs and increase efficiency.

Why must US TG numbers use E.164 format?

E.164 is the global telephone number standard format defined by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). When platforms such as Telegram and WhatsApp verify whether a number is activated, they rely on the standardized structure of pure numbers + country code. If the number contains brackets, spaces, hyphens, or lacks the country code “+1”, the platform may:

• Reject recognition: Directly mark the format as invalid and skip detection.
• Misjudged as invalid number: Because the country code and local number cannot be correctly parsed, the system may think that the number does not exist.
• Waste of budget: In the same batch of data, a large number of numbers that have been filtered due to format issues need to be re-cleaned and re-submitted, resulting in repeated deductions.

Especially for batch screening scenarios (such as detecting 10,000 US TG valid numbers at one time), every 10% reduction in the format error rate can save hundreds or even thousands of yuan in testing costs. Therefore, format cleaning before uploading is not optional, but required.

What is the E.164 format? Standard way to write U.S. numbers

Core rules of the E.164 format:

• Starts with plus sign (+), followed by country code, area code (domestic area code) and local number.
• Does not contain spaces, brackets, hyphens, periods, or any other non-numeric characters (except the plus sign).
• The length of the global number does not exceed 15 digits.

Standard E.164 notation for U.S. phone numbers:

+1 区域码(3位) + 本地号码(7位) → +1XXXXXXXXXX

For example: original writing (212) 555-1234 → standard format +12125551234

Comparison of common writing errors:

Original writing	Error reason	Standard E.164
(212) 555-1234	Includes brackets, spaces, hyphens	+12125551234
1-212-555-1234	Contains hyphens, no + before the country code	+12125551234
2125551234	Missing country code+1	+12125551234
001-212-555-1234	Contains redundant international access code 00 and hyphen	+12125551234
+1 212.555.1234	Contains spaces and periods	+12125551234

Three common format errors and correction methods before uploading

Brackets and spaces - remove all non-numeric symbols

Many numbers exported by CRM or crawlers have formatting symbols, such as (310) 456-7890 or 310-456-7890. These symbols will be regarded as illegal characters in the Telegram number screening system, causing the system to fail to recognize them correctly.

Correction method: Delete all non-numeric characters (retain the plus sign, but the plus sign will not be considered at this stage).
For example: (310) 456-7890 → 3104567890 (pure numbers)

Missing country code “+1” - must be completed

US numbers are originally 10 digits (such as 3104567890), but Telegram requires the complete international format to determine ownership. If +1 is not added, the system may mistake it for other country numbers, resulting in inaccurate test results or even missed detections.

Correction: Add +1 before the 10-digit number.
For example: 3104567890 → +13104567890

If the number already contains 1 but not + (such as 13104567890), you need to add + in front to become +13104567890.

Extra leading 0s or special symbols - unified cleaning

Sometimes the number comes from an international source and will have an international access code (e.g. 001-310-456-7890) or extra symbols (e.g. #3104567890). These need to be cleaned.

Correction method: Remove the preambles such as 00, 011, retain the country code 1, and clean up all symbols.

How to batch clean the US TG number format

Excel/Google Sheets formula method

Assuming your original number is in column A, you can clean it as follows:

1. Remove all non-numeric characters (retain the plus sign, which is not needed yet): Enter the formula in B1 =SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(A1," ",""),"-",""),"(",""),")",""),".","") This formula only removes spaces, hyphens, brackets, and periods. More SUBSTITUTEs can be nested if there are other symbols.

2. Judge and complete the country code: Enter the formula in C1 =IF(LEN(B1)=10, "+1"&B1, IF(LEFT(B1,1)="1", "+"&B1, B1)) This formula determines: if it is a 10-digit number after processing (US local number), add +1; if it is 11 digits and the first digit is 1 (such as 13104567890), add +; in other cases, keep it unchanged (it is considered to contain a plus sign or the format is abnormal).

3. After drop-down filling, copy the results in column C and paste the values ​​into the new column to get the standard E.164 format.

Text editor regular replacement

If you are familiar with regular expressions (Regex), batch processing is faster with Sublime Text, VS Code or Notepad++:

• Step 1: Open the numbers file (one number per line).
• Step 2: Find [^0-9+] (match all non-digit, non-plus sign characters) and replace with an empty string. This will clear brackets, spaces, hyphens, etc.
• Step 3: Find ^[0-9]{10} (the 10-digit line of pure numbers) and replace it with +10.
• Step 4: Find ^1[0-9]{10} (an 11-digit line of pure numbers starting with 1) and replace it with +0.

After completion, all number formats will be unified to +1XXXXXXXXXX.

Use KK-DATA number format detection

When the KK-DATA platform imports numbers, it will try to automatically identify the format and give prompts. You only need to upload the CSV/TXT file before cleaning to the console, and the system will mark numbers with abnormal formats and recommend corrections. For specific operations, please refer to the official documentation https://docs.kkdata.cc/. However, in order to save time and avoid missed detections, it is strongly recommended to use the above method to complete format cleaning before uploading**.

Duplicate number cleaning - avoid wasting detection budget

Why can weight removal directly save money?

KK-DATA charges per item, and the balance will be deducted for each number detected. If the same number appears multiple times (such as data merged from different sources), duplicate numbers will be charged repeatedly, but the number of valid US TG numbers you get in the end will not increase. For example, if 20% of 100,000 pieces of data are duplicated, it means paying 20% ​​more. After deduplication, you only pay for unique numbers.

Two-step deduplication: Excel deduplication + platform deduplication warehouse

Step 1: Remove duplicates in Excel/Google Sheets

• Select the number column → click “Data” → “Delete Duplicates”.
• Or use conditional formatting to highlight duplicate values ​​and manually determine whether to delete them.

Step 2: Use KK-DATA data to deduplicate the warehouse

KK-DATA provides a built-in data deduplication warehouse that can automatically deduplicate across tasks and batches. When you submit a new task, the system will compare this number with the numbers in historical tasks and skip the numbers that have been detected to avoid repeated deductions. This is especially useful for teams that screen long-term, multi-batch runs. Usage is very simple: when creating a screening task, just check “Enable deduplication warehouse” (see the console for details).

FAQ

Q: Does the E.164 format of US phone numbers have to add ”+”?
Answer: Yes, the E.164 standard requires it to start with a plus sign, such as +1xxxxxxxxxx. Not adding the plus sign may cause some systems to fail to recognize it. It is recommended that all numbers include +.

Q: I have 100,000 US numbers. Manual cleaning is too slow. Is there any free batch method?
Answer: You can use Excel formula or text editor for regular replacement, and the entire file can be processed in one operation. For detailed steps, see “Excel Formula Method” and “Regular Replacement” above.

Q: Do the cleaned numbers still need to be sorted or deduplicated?
Answer: It is strongly recommended to remove the duplicates first. Duplicate numbers waste testing fees. You can delete duplicates in Excel, or use KK-DATA’s data deduplication warehouse to deduplicate across tasks.

Q: My number contains a Canadian (+1) number, how can I distinguish it?
A: US numbers usually start with area codes 2-9, Canadian area codes mostly start with 2-9 but there are specific lists. Simple method: unify the format first, and then filter by the area code list. If you need more accuracy, you can keep the original data for comparison.

Q: Will the format be automatically processed when filtering KK-DATA?
Answer: The platform supports numbers in standard E.164 format. It is recommended to clean it yourself before uploading. Some non-standard formats may be marked as invalid and may be missed. It is recommended to clean according to the steps in this article before uploading.

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Now you have mastered the core method of cleaning the US valid TG number format. Unifying the E.164 format, removing duplications, and completing the country code, these three steps can increase your US TG opening data screening efficiency by more than 50%, greatly reducing the cost of invalid detection.

👉Log in to the console to start screening numbers Two-way contact customer service https://t.me/kkdata_robot For more operating documentation, see https://docs.kkdata.cc/