Why does a dash or negative symbol appear before my numbers?

A

Allen Browne

The reason is that Microsoft stuffed up the sorting when the created JET 4,
so all versions form Access 2000 onwards are inconsistent in the way they
handle this character.

Details in this knowledgebase article:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;271661

--
Allen Browne - Microsoft MVP. Perth, Western Australia.

Reply to group, rather than allenbrowne at mvps dot org.

In message "H" <[email protected]> asked the question in the subject.
 
R

Rick B

Because it less than zero. .

Feel free to post your question in full sentences. You can even use that
big box that is provided to give us details.
 
6

'69 Camaro

Hi.

All of the values you see are less than zero, i.e., negative numbers.

HTH.

Gunny

See http://www.QBuilt.com for all your database needs.
See http://www.Access.QBuilt.com for Microsoft Access tips.

(Please remove ZERO_SPAM from my reply E-mail address, so that a message
will be forwarded to me.)

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6

'69 Camaro

Hi.

Now that I re-read your question, I think that you may not be asking why the
negative symbol appears before your numbers. You may be asking why the
records containing the negative symbol are sorted before the records
containing numbers.

If so, then it's because the ASCII value for the negative symbol, which is
45, is less than the ASCII value for any digit, 0 through 9, which are ASCII
48 through 57. Therefore, on a sort, 45 will be followed by 48, 49, 50, et
cetera. The records containing the negative symbols will be displayed before
the records containing digits as the first character, such as 0, 1, 2, et
cetera, in this text field.

HTH.

Gunny

See http://www.QBuilt.com for all your database needs.
See http://www.Access.QBuilt.com for Microsoft Access tips.

(Please remove ZERO_SPAM from my reply E-mail address, so that a message
will be forwarded to me.)

- - -
When you see correct answers to your question posted in Microsoft's Online
Community, please sign in to the Community and mark these posts as "Answers,"
so that all may benefit by filtering on "Answered questions" and quickly
finding the right answers to similar questions. (Only "Answers" have green
check-marks.) Remember that the best answers are often given to those who
have a history of rewarding the contributors who have taken the time to
answer questions correctly.
 
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