Works: Numbers Preceded with + or - Disappear in DB Text Field
Article ID: 125315
Article Last Modified on 11/15/2004
APPLIES TO
- Microsoft Works 3.0 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Works 3.0a
- Microsoft Works 3.0b
- Microsoft Works 4.5 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Works 4.5a
- Microsoft Works 4.0 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Works 4.0a
This article was previously published under Q125315
SYMPTOMS
When a database field is formatted as Text and you type text with a leading
equal sign (=), plus sign (+), or minus sign (-) sign, one of the following
will occur:
- The text will disappear from the record when you press ENTER.
- The results of the equation will be displayed instead of the
text.
- If the equation in the text-formatted field contains characters that
would be invalid in a formula, the error message "Reference not
valid or wrong operand type," "Missing Operand," "The formula is not
typed correctly," or "The formula contains an error" will be
displayed.
CAUSE
Works interprets any text preceded by an equal sign, plus sign, or minus
sign as a formula, even if the field is formatted as Text. Since formula
results are not displayed in the current record until there is data in
another field, the text may seem to disappear.
RESOLUTION
To resolve this problem, precede the data with a quotation mark. For
example:
Additional query words: 3.00 3.00a 3.00b 4.00 4.00a 4.50 4.50a W_works DB wrong
Keywords: kbprb KB125315