Empty Telephonenumber not null

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bas
  • Start date Start date
B

Bas

I noticed the following in Outlook 2000:

When a new contact is created all fields are null. Then I enter a
telephonenumber (fe. Business Telephone Number = 1234). When the
telephonenumber is deleted the field should be null again (no
telephonenumber entered), the field is an empty string instead.

For a normal user this should not be a problem (just that it consumes more
diskspace), as a programmer I'll have to check if the phonenumber is empty,
null or filled.

Is this a know bug, is there any workaround, and is this bug/feature also
available in Outlook XP/2003?
 
That has been the same since Outlook 97 and I don't expect it to change.

When a new item is created many of the fields for it don't actually exist
(unless you initialize them). When a value is added to one of those fields
the field is initialized with that value. When the value is deleted the
result for a string value field is "" (a null string). Your choices are to
initialize all fields you may want to test or restrict or filter on when the
item is created or to test for both a null and a null string.

If you look at a new item using OutlookSpy (www.dimastr.com) to see the MAPI
properties behind what you see in Outlook you will see this exact behavior
and which fields actually exist in a new item.
 
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