You could also force a text comparison by doing something like: if X+"" = Y+"" then ... (although that does make for some ugly looking code ;-)
Larry Hiscock Western Computer Services -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, May 12, 2004 7:50 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [U2] SPACE character ignored You're right with your guess about numeric equivalence. Probably the best way to test for this type of thing is to use the COMPARE function. Try: X = "1" Y = "1 " IF COMPARE(X,Y) = 0 THEN ... COMPARE returns -1, 0 or 1 depending on whether the first argument is less than, equal to or greater than the second. COMPARE also has a third optional argument of Justification which can be either "R" or "L" (default "L"). -----Original Message----- From: Lindsay Gregory [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, 13 May 2004 10:29 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [U2] SPACE character ignored Hi I am sure this has been covered somewhere before but I could not find under oliver.com or u2ug.org. Can anyone tell me why: if X = '1' Y = '1 ' ;* note the trailing space character X = Y is true But if X = '' Y = ' ' X = Y is false So adding a space character to a text string is ignored but adding a space character to a null is not ignored. I can understand why X = '' is not equal to Y = ' ' because X is not a text string but if in the first case - the text string Y has two characters - a one and a space and the text string X has only one character how can they be equivalent. My guess is that by the time they come to be tested for equivalence they have been converted to numeric values and are being tested for numeric equivalence. How can I force them to be tested for TXT equivalence? Do I have to say: IF X = Y AND LEN(X) = LEN(Y) THEN true Except if X = ' 1' and Y = '1 ' then LEN(X) = LEN(Y) ... It seems that leading or trailing spaces are ignored (but not embedded spaces) so I have to say IF LEN(X) = LEN(TRIM(X)) AND LEN(Y) = LEN(TRIM(Y)) AND X = Y THEN true There has got to be an easier way !! Lindsay Gregory Axys (NZ) Ltd www.axys.co.nz Ph: +64 9 5200264 Fax +64 9 5200266 Mob +64 21 770 462 ------- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.u2ug.org/listinfo/u2-users Disclaimer. This e-mail is private and confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, please advise us by return e-mail immediately, and delete the e-mail and any attachments without using or disclosing the contents in any way. The views expressed in this e-mail are those of the author, and do not represent those of this company unless this is clearly indicated. You should scan this e-mail and any attachments for viruses. This company accepts no liability for any direct or indirect damage or loss resulting from the use of any attachments to this e-mail. ------- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.u2ug.org/listinfo/u2-users ------- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.u2ug.org/listinfo/u2-users
