Tidying up my data

[Van T. Dinh]

Dates values are stored differently from what we normally
see (similar to a Double). All you need to do is to use
the Format Property or Format() function to display the
date values the way you want.

If the SSN numbers are actually *Text* value
(recommended), they will be sorted as Text rather than
numeric. In Text sorting, the first characters of the
values will be compared and sorted. Only when the first
characters are the same then the second characters are
compared and so on ...

Not much you can do about the missing digits in the stored
values besides from finding out the correct SSN numbers by
other means. Perhaps to avoid the same problem occurring
again, you should put some check on the data entry Form to
force the users to enter the correct number of
characters/digits.

HTH
Van T. Dinh
MVP (Access)

-----Original Message-----
Hello,

I have a table with thousands of employees' records in

it. I'd like to achieve a uniform appearance for each
one, right now I'm working on Date of Birth:

1/1/1951

I entered an input mask for future entries (since I only

started entering at 3500) that reads:

99/99/0000;0;_

Now, all new records require the format MM/DD/YYYY. How

can I make all the old records appear as "01/01/1951"
whereas right now they appear "1 /1 /1951"?

Question 2:
Social Security Numbers:
Some of the SSN's were incorrectly entered. The main

problem right now is SSN's missing a single digit. There
are only a few, but [SORT|Ascending] just starts them at
001-01-0001, and SSN's missing a digit are just in order,
as if the first group of numbers (045-, 047-, etc) is all
they are arranged by. How can I correct this? (Hint:
Some are missing the numbere here* 001-0*-0001 and some
are missing it here* 001-01-000*)