Input masks

[Guest]

I've created a table into which I've imported data from an Excel spreadsheet.
However I've come across a problem when I search the data. I've included an
input mask for one of the fields but the input mask hasn't applied to the
imported data. So when I search the data I get the new records but not the
old ones. Is there any way I can update the imported data to include the
input mask?

 

[Dirk Goldgar]

I've created a table into which I've imported data from an Excel
spreadsheet. However I've come across a problem when I search the
data. I've included an input mask for one of the fields but the
input mask hasn't applied to the imported data. So when I search the
data I get the new records but not the old ones. Is there any way I
can update the imported data to include the input mask?

I guess you set up your input mask to store the mask characters with the
data. So you need to update the imported data to conform to the mask.
You can probably do it with an update query, provided the query can
distinguish between the old (correctly formatted) data and the new data.
What type of data is stored in the field? What is the input mask? What
does the good data look like, and what does the bad data look like?