Input Mask - quick question

[prodata]

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?

 

[Douglas J. Steele]

Read about the (optional) second section in the Help file (or see
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb215691.aspx )

 

[prodata]

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?

 

[Douglas J. Steele]

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!)

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?

 

[prodata]

Do you have the field set to Text, not a number?

Yes, definitely text.

 

[prodata]

No-one able to offer any further insight or suggestion? I guess it
must be a fairly obscure issue/bug?

JGD

 

[prodata]

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!