Exact Function is busted!!

[Roger1]

I wish to compare a field called "account" in one DB with an identical field called "account" in another DB (they are both text fields) and return "1" if the two fields match. I have used the Exact function to define a compare field. Mostly this works fine, but then for some unknown reason sometimes (1 in 20) the compare field gives me a zero even though on checking the second DB, there is a perfect match down to the last space. The account fields contain numbers but is set up as a text field.

I'm going nuts. Can anyone shed some light or suggest a simpler way to do this? Thanks

[tlsparker]

You probably already considered this, but the Exact function is case-sensitive. If not that, could it be comparing apostrophes to single quotes? Different size underlines? Different dashes? Perhaps switching your fields to a font that shows ASCII symbol numbers might bring the culprit to light.

If content is all that matters, could you do an If (field = related::field, 1, 0) calc for a less stringent comparison?

[Vaughan]

Exact really is exact. I tend to "soften" it a bit by making it case-insensitive...

Exact( Lower(field1), Lower(field2) )

You can also Trim() the fields so it ignors (or never sees) leading and trailing spaces as well.

[Roger1]

Thanks Gentlemen. The function still has me puzzled. Even when I cut and paste the exact field into both DBs it doesn't give me a match. I may have to rethink me approach to this one.

[Vaughan]

Post the calculation you are using.

[Steven H. Blackwell]

Indeed.

Exact compares two text strings, the "original" and the "comparison" and they must be exactly alike, exactly alike, for the result to be true.

Old Advance Man

[Roger1]

Thanks - it seems to have solved itself. I had reason to destroy the relationship between the 2 bases and when I reset them the fields I related to each other were the same ones I wanted to compare and it worked perfectly.

Regards