non-English text display problem with functions

Non-English text display problem with functions

Question

My particular problem is with Thai Access/Windows but I wonder if it occurs with other language versions as well. This problem does not occur 100% of the time. In fact, in the following example the control was displaying properly for a short time.

Here's an example. The same thing has happened with the month part of date() (formatted 'long date')

- A custom function looks up and returns a table field (as string), which contains Thai text.
- A control with that function as its datasource shows ?????????? instead of characters.
- Cut and paste the field from the table into the control - it displays properly (which indicates that the format/font of the control is okay, I believe).
- Run the function in the debug window, it displays properly.

Anyone seen this before or have any idea on how to work around it?

Answer

Peter,

I've the same problem with the function returning string with Russian text. (English WinNT/Acc97 but russian fonts are installed (improperly(?)). This seems to be a bug (feature). Testing function returning russian text I've found the same as you: when it is used as a control source is returns a string of Asc(63) - "?". When used in debug window it returns proper string of russian chars. But when used in query it again returns improper string of "?".

Workaround for form's control - use VBA:

me![ctlWithRussainText] = MyTestFunction()

Workaround for query's field:

None?

HTH,
Shamil