Stumped! Can't explain CStr behavior...

[KerryC]

Hi,

I'm using CR9 and was having some unexpected behavior with the CStr function. So to troubleshoot I created a new function that is just:

CStr(125.34,"000.00")

This is an example directly from the CR online help. The help screen says the result of this should be "125.34" but when I put this formula on a report I get "125.00"

I'm afraid I'm missing something obvious but I've been staring at this too long and thought I should ask for help.

Kerry

 

[synapsevampire]

Perhaps you should state the requirement rather than an unexpected behavior.

If you'd like 2 decimals of precision, use:

cstr(125.34,2)

Not sure why you're getting that result, but try applying the service pack (I don't use that method for formatting).

-k

 

[KerryC]

Hi synapsevampire -

It's not exactly the number of decimal places I'm trying to dictate, it's the number of significant figures. I've created a user defined function to create a format string that I thought CStr could use to take care of significant figures. The UDF gives me the format string I want, but CStr doesn't behave like the online example.

Perhaps a better example might be the numbers 0.12534 and 0.01253 which represented to 3 significant figures are 0.125 and 0.0125, respecively. So you see, I cannot use decimal places alone.

The format string for these examples given by my UDF are "0.000" and "0.0000", respectively which according to how I read the online help example should have been what CStr could use to give the correct value. So my question still comes down to why my simple test function CStr(125.34,"000.00") yields "125.00" instead of "125.34" ?

Kerry

 

[rosemaryl]

Dear KerryC,

I think the issue here is that it is setting the format to what you have by global default for number fields.

Look in File/Options/Fields/Number and see what it is set to.

I was able to duplicate the issue you are having and I was able to correct it (sort of) by changing the default format. I didn't expect it to behave this way. I assumed that it would take the actual value, but it appears that the number of decimals of precision are required here.

Why not update your UDF to return the number of decimal places of precision required also so that you return:

"0.000", 3 for example ...

Hope that helps,

ro

Rosemary Lieberman
rosemary-at-microflo.com,

http://www.microflo.com

Microflo provides expert consulting on MagicTSD and Crystal Reports.

You will get answers more quickly if you read this before posting: faq149-3762