Duplicated person checks uses phone number, telegram and email only

[nus-pe-bot]

Description Duplicated person checks are done using phone number, telegram and email only. In this day and age, while very very unlikely, it is possible that two different people share one phone (maybe to save money) and thus have the same phone number telegram and email.

Steps to reproduce add n/ John Doe p/99999999 add n/ Hello p/99999999

Expected behaviour New person added for both

Actual behaviour This person already exists in Dormie for second added person

Reason for severity It is a very niche scenario that is very unlikely to happen as most people have their own phones. However, as specifications are not made clear in the UG or DG, a user might not know this and have their entry rejected despite every other field being populated differently. Names could also be checked to see if its different as well.

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_{[original: nus-cs2103-AY2324S2/pe-interim#201] [original labels: severity.Low type.FeatureFlaw]}

[PallonCX]

Team's Response

Thanks for bringing this up! As you emphasized, it is "very, very unlikely" for two different people to share one phone. Furthermore, our application records phone numbers so that users can make calls to contacts when needed. However, if we allowed two people to share the same phone number, the user may not know which person is picking up the phone, which could cause inconvenience in some cases (e.g., if the user needs to contact one person for a personal or private issue). The same justification applies to telegram handles and email.

Regarding the statement that "specifications are not made clear in the UG", there is a clear statement in UG that no two people can share the same phone number, email, or telegram handle. The screenshot is provided as follows:

In the case where user attempts to provide such duplicate entry, the error message is reasonably specific as well:

Lastly, we didn't check for duplicate names, as it's common for people to have the same name (or just a nickname), unlike phone numbers, emails, or telegram handles, which can be shared in very rare cases.

Duplicate status (if any):

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