[AccessD] Interesting behavior with Val()

Well, while the help file is not explicit on this, the results you are
seeing do make sense. Val() is supposed to extract a numeric value from the
left end of a string, skipping over any spaces and the recognizing "&O" and
"&H" to indicate Octal and Hex numbers. 

So Val("1abcde") will return 1, but Val("abcd") will return 0 (zero).  This
is because Val() is declare as returning a double, so the "value" of an all
alpha string is treated as zero.

And so Len(Val("abcd")) will be 1 not zero.

If your intent was to find out if a string *begins* with a numeric value
then you could try...

If IsNumeric(Left(Trim(strValue),1)) Then
	' Got a digit
Else
	' Does not start with a digit
End If

Lambert 

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Susan Harkins
Sent: Thursday, November 09, 2006 1:46 PM
To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'
Subject: [AccessD] Interesting behavior with Val()


I've read Help looking for an explanation for what I'm about to say, but
haven't found one. 
 
The following expression returns 1 if value has no numeric digits:
 
Len(Val(value))
 
I expected the expression to return 0. You can test this on the Employees
table in Northwind -- there are two records where the Address value is alpha
text, with no numeric digits at the beginning of the value. The above
expression, against those two values, returns 1. 
 
What am I missing? 
 
Susan H. 
-- 
AccessD mailing list
AccessD at databaseadvisors.com
http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd
Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com