Access Format problem (1 Viewer)

[Peter_G]

Have prepared some date in Excel containing several columns of test/numbers. All the columns were formatted to the left. Have uploaded the table into Access and have some simple queries to search and display the tables. The queries have all formatted to the right. Looking in HOME, the TEXT FORMATTING BOX is grayed out and has no effect. Can this be unlocked? Can't find any other formatting method. Thanks in advance.

 

[Micron]

Not sure this is what you want to read, but it matters not how table data looks because you shouldn't be mucking about in tables (or queries). You use forms and reports. What might matter is if the data type is wrong for the job. In Access tables, numbers default to right justified, text to left. It is one way of telling what the data type is just by looking at the layout - unless someone has altered the alignment.

What might be important here is whether you ended up with text data where you expect numbers and vice versa. That is a common issue when bringing Excel data into Access and there are work arounds for it.

 

[Pat Hartman]

Some codes that contain only numbers are actually strings. Two examples are zip code and SSN. In order to retain the leading zeros, these codes MUST be stored as text. Only if you are doing arithmetic with a number should it be stored as a numeric data type. Sometimes you get long numbers from other products. ALWAYS store them as text. You aren't doing arithmetic operations on them, so don't store them as numbers.