space padding between two fields.

[kjspear]

Hello,

I have the following code;

SELECT ([Lap ID])&" "& ([Last Update]) AS Expr1
FROM Laptops;

What is happening is that the list is not lined up correctly.

Ex;

07AJ 4/30/2008
0111 4/30/2008

I'm trying to line them up. The max characters for the [Lap ID] field is 3. But I want the length to always be fixed by let's say 5 spaces. I thought I could use the Chr(9) function. Where (9) is a horizontal tab non printable character. I tried to do this;

SELECT ([Lap ID])&+chr(9)+& ([Last Update]) AS Expr1
FROM Laptops;

But I got an error. I couldn't find my answer using the MS Help or on line help for Access. Any asistance would be appreciated.

 

[PWise]

SELECT ([Lap ID])& Space(5-len([lap id ])) & [Last Update] AS Expr1
FROM Laptops;

 

[Golom]

pwise's solution should work but note that they still may not line up unless you use a non-proportional font like Courier New.

This

SELECT ([Lap ID])&+chr(9)+& ([Last Update]) AS Expr1
FROM Laptops;

will raise an error because of the "+" signs. Try

SELECT ([Lap ID]) & chr(9) & ([Last Update]) AS Expr1
FROM Laptops;

 

[BigRed1212]

If you are ultimately trying to output tabular data for presentation purposes, for example in an .asp file on a Web site, you could select your information and then write it into a table which would line things up nicely.