Formating a Phone Field

[danielb]

I a learning Alpha Five vs. 7. I have imported accounts from a flat text file exported by the host system. One of the field types is a phone field (10 characters). I imported it successfully using the Alpha import functionality. However, no matter how I set up the format mask for the field (###) ###-###, the phone number never appears formatted. It always appears as ##########. I have tried numerous variations including using zeros in place of pound signs, but it never works. The demo application uses exactly the same methods I am using and the field appears correctly formated as (###) ###-####.

The only thing I can think of is that the character field is somehow affected upon import.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Dan

[Stan Mathews]

Re: Formating a Phone Field

However, no matter how I set up the format mask for the field (###) ###-###, the phone number never appears formatted.

Since you don't indicate where or how you attempted this I'll guess that you are speaking of setting up the mask in the table field rules. Note that the mask feature is available on the data entry tab of the field rule editor. The mask will not be applied to existing records nor to records placed in the table outside of manual data entry.

If you want to format the field in existing or newly imported records you will need to edit the table structure to make the field 14 characters wide and run an update operation on the field, replacing the current contents with

 mask("phonefieldname", "(  )|   -   ")

where the trailing parameter is
left parentheses, three spaces, right parentheses, pipe character, three spaces, dash, four spaces.

[danielb]

Re: Formating a Phone Field

Thank you for your reply.

Yes I was using the field rules on the table to format the mask.

I thought of using code as you suggest but rather hoped Alpha would adjust the format for viewing without having to change the data structure by adding the code to the daily import routine (the fields will be ovewritten each time the account is refreshed from the host system).

I assume you are saying that Alpha has no formatting capability for viewing purposes such as MS Access?

Thank you again for you help.

Dan

[Stan Mathews]

Re: Formating a Phone Field

I assume you are saying that Alpha has no formatting capability for viewing purposes such as MS Access?

not at all, but the table field rules are not the place to do this. On any layout where you want to display the field formatted as a phone number, create a calculated field, expression as suggested earlier for the update operation, and place the calculated field on the layout rather than the actual field.

[danielb]

Re: Formating a Phone Field

Thank you! This sounds like an acceptable alternative.

Dan