Still have Issues with leading zeros after applying switches

[Zachary]

I am experiencing the exact same situation as Richard originally wrote on
2/4/05. When merging zip codes, leading zero is dropped on 5 digit zip code;
10 digit with leading zero works fine.
Additional background-
1. My data source is provided in html format.
2. In data source, zip codes can be either be 5 digit or 10 digit (9 digit
plus the '-' in between zip and 4 ext. The '-' cannot be easily removed)

Went to gmayor.com as suggested in several postings. The \# "00000" switch
works great if the data source has 5 digit zip codes only. In my case, If a
10 digit zip is passed in, then the formatting treat it like a subtraction
calculation. So 12345-6789 ends up as '05556' and 01234-5678 ends up as
'-04444'

I tried different variations on the swith syntax with no luck. Any
suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Terry]

Zachary,

I always treat zip codes (called postcodes here) as text
and store them in a text field. We use 4 digit zip codes
and after importing, query the input field with a len
([postcode]) and a criteria of <4. Base an update query on
this and update to "0"&[postcode]. Run the update query
until no more rows need updating.

HTH,

Terry

 

[Terry]

My apologies ..... for some reason I thought this was an
Access newsgroup. My previous answer has no relevence to
Word mailmerge.

My apologies again,

Terry

-----Original Message-----
Zachary,

I always treat zip codes (called postcodes here) as text
and store them in a text field. We use 4 digit zip codes
and after importing, query the input field with a len
([postcode]) and a criteria of <4. Base an update query on
this and update to "0"&[postcode]. Run the update query
until no more rows need updating.

HTH,

Terry

-----Original Message-----
I am experiencing the exact same situation as Richard originally wrote on
2/4/05. When merging zip codes, leading zero is dropped on 5 digit zip code;
10 digit with leading zero works fine.
Additional background-
1. My data source is provided in html format.
2. In data source, zip codes can be either be 5 digit or 10 digit (9 digit
plus the '-' in between zip and 4 ext. The '-' cannot be easily removed)

Went to gmayor.com as suggested in several postings. The \# "00000" switch
works great if the data source has 5 digit zip codes only. In my case, If a
10 digit zip is passed in, then the formatting treat it like a subtraction
calculation. So 12345-6789 ends up as '05556' and 01234- 5678 ends up as
'-04444'

I tried different variations on the swith syntax with no luck. Any
suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

.

 

[Doug Robbins]

Remove the hyphens (subtraction signs) from the data source so that you
either have 5 or 9 digit zip codes. Then the conditional field switch
construction that Graham has on his website will work fine.

--
Please respond to the Newsgroup for the benefit of others who may be
interested. Questions sent directly to me will only be answered on a paid
consulting basis.

Hope this helps,
Doug Robbins - Word MVP