Custom Data does not load while editing Contact

Consider these circumstances:

A custom data field of the data type Integer or Number and field type Select . Its Multiple Choice Options containing an option with Value beginning with a zero . For example 001 , rather than just 1 .

If a contact was to have this value - the one with the leading zero - its View will correctly show the Label of the Value selected for it. But if this contact was to be Edited , the correct Label will not be automatically selected in the Select list of the Custom Field.

This causes pain in two ways:

a. If the field was not Required , the earlier selected Value will be lost silently.
b. If the field was Required , the earlier selected Value will have to be selected again every time editing the Contact - requiring the user to be smart and opening the Contact in another window first.

This is caused by the fact that the Multiple Choice Options are stored in a Varchar field in the database (which does not lose any leading zeros) and the Custom Data Table has an Integer or a Double field (which ignores any leading zeros.) Hence, when matching Values in a form, "001" type of Values don't match their "1" type counterparts - and do not get loaded automatically.