Rails - Nov 2006 - Validations ignoring :allow_nil => true

I have an address model and am doing some validations. One of them seems 
to ignore :allow_nil => true.  If I leave the phone input blank, I get 
it back with a "too short" error. Here''s the relevant parts
of the model:

    1. class Address < ActiveRecord::Base
    2.
    3. validates_length_of :phone, :in => 7..10, :allow_nil => true
    4.
    5. before_validation :format_phone
    6.
    7. def format_phone
    8. unless self.phone.nil?
    9. self.phone.gsub!( /[^0-9#\*]/, '''' )
   10. self.phone.gsub!( /^1/, '''' )
   11. end
   12. end
   13.
   14. end

So, why isn''t the model doing what it''s supposed to?

Thanks,

--Dean
--
Unscrambler of eggs.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Work is the curse of the drinking class -- Oscar Wilde
Fermentation fault (Coors dumped)
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