Changing Format Length of a Field

[jereece]

I have a number field in the format 00-0000 on a form and associated table. The first 2 digits represent the year and the last 4 are a numerical sequence. When I designed the database I did not imagine exceeding 9999 in a year, however we did. So I increased the format length to 00-00000. The problem with this is how it changed the existing data. For example 11-1234 now reads 01-11234 instead of 11-01234. I have a backup copy of the database. Is there a way I can increase the size of this field without messing up the existing data?

As always I appreciate your help.
Jim

 

[boblarson]

First off a little learning for you -

1. These two pieces should have been kept in separate fields.

2. You then concatenate them together for DISPLAY when you need them and format them then.

So are these stored as numbers or as text?

 

[gemma-the-husky]

is this field used as a foreign key value in other tables? - if it is, then you have a problem in those tables as well.