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#1
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Input Mask - quick question
Sorry I'm just an occasional Access user but need to tweak an existing
form in a database. This has a couple of fields for holding latitude and longitude values, which we need to store as text values in deg:min:sec format, eg 12:34:56 . (When I say 'store' I mean that literally. The database file is accessed by a completely separate custom VB program that reads these two fields as strings and expects to see two colon characters in each field string in the appropriate places.) I'd been hoping to use an input mask so that users don't forget to enter the colons, which they're apt to do. In other words, so that all the user needs to do is to enter only the digits, with the colons effectively being entered automatically For the input mask I've tried using 00:00:00 and then 00\:00\:00 (wondering if the colons needed to be a literal) but in neither case do the colons seem to get stored in the relevant database fields. Anyone able to advise please? |
#2
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Input Mask - quick question
Read about the (optional) second section in the Help file (or see
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb215691.aspx ) -- Doug Steele, Microsoft Access MVP http://www.AccessMVP.com/DJSteele (no e-mails, please!) "prodata" wrote in message ... Sorry I'm just an occasional Access user but need to tweak an existing form in a database. This has a couple of fields for holding latitude and longitude values, which we need to store as text values in deg:min:sec format, eg 12:34:56 . (When I say 'store' I mean that literally. The database file is accessed by a completely separate custom VB program that reads these two fields as strings and expects to see two colon characters in each field string in the appropriate places.) I'd been hoping to use an input mask so that users don't forget to enter the colons, which they're apt to do. In other words, so that all the user needs to do is to enter only the digits, with the colons effectively being entered automatically For the input mask I've tried using 00:00:00 and then 00\:00\:00 (wondering if the colons needed to be a literal) but in neither case do the colons seem to get stored in the relevant database fields. Anyone able to advise please? |
#3
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Input Mask - quick question
On May 20, 4:17*pm, "Douglas J. Steele"
wrote: Read about the (optional) second section in the Help file (or seehttp://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb215691.aspx) Thanks - that suggests that simply adding a semicolon and a zero to the end of my input mask should do the trick. But sadly it doesn't seem to. So, if I set the input mask to 00:00:00;0 (penultimate character is a semicolon) then 12:34:56 is still stored just as 123456 . Using 00\:00\:00;0 gives no improvement. What am I missing? Does the input mask need to be in quotes? Should there be a space in there after the semicolon, or an additional terminating semicolon? Or what? |
#4
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Input Mask - quick question
Do you have the field set to Text, not a number?
-- Doug Steele, Microsoft Access MVP http://www.AccessMVP.com/DJSteele (no e-mails, please!) "prodata" wrote in message ... On May 20, 4:17 pm, "Douglas J. Steele" wrote: Read about the (optional) second section in the Help file (or seehttp://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb215691.aspx) Thanks - that suggests that simply adding a semicolon and a zero to the end of my input mask should do the trick. But sadly it doesn't seem to. So, if I set the input mask to 00:00:00;0 (penultimate character is a semicolon) then 12:34:56 is still stored just as 123456 . Using 00\:00\:00;0 gives no improvement. What am I missing? Does the input mask need to be in quotes? Should there be a space in there after the semicolon, or an additional terminating semicolon? Or what? |
#5
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Input Mask - quick question
On May 20, 5:56*pm, "Douglas J. Steele"
wrote: Do you have the field set to Text, not a number? Yes, definitely text. |
#6
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Input Mask - quick question
No-one able to offer any further insight or suggestion? I guess it
must be a fairly obscure issue/bug? JGD |
#7
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Input Mask - quick question
OK, problem solved. I was inadvertantly setting the input mask on the
main table rather than the form. Once I set it correctly on the form then all was OK! |
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