Forced input mask for Date

[ppataki]

Dear All,

We are using a database in a multiuser environment where the Regional Settings in Windows is set up differently for different users (and cannot be changed)
How is it possible to set a Date field that ONLY mm/dd/yyyy date format is accepted when entering data manually?

Your help would be very much appreciated

 

[neileg]

Dates are not stored as dates but as numbers. The format you see on the screen does not alter what is stored. So users can use their own local format and the data will still be consistent.

Why do you think this is a problem?

Just thought - you do have a different front end for each user, don't you?

 

[Dennisk]

first you will need an input mask on the text box,

e.g. 99/99/9999 for dd/mm/yyyy or mm/dd/yyyy

then you apply a date format of mm/dd/yyyy to the text box.

Now if a user enters the data incorrectly it should be apparent when the format is applied.

you could also split your date for data entry into 3 fields and label each accordingly, then you could apply validation in the before update event.

However you will never be able to determine if 01/02/2009 is 1 Feb 2009 or 2 Jan 2009.
But to make it clear you can replace the month text box with a combo box of months Jan - Dec.

 

[ppataki]

Everyone uses the same frontend, I deleted the input mask and now it works fine, everybody enters the date in his/her default Windows format!
Thx!

 

[neileg]

Using the same front end increases the risk of corruption.

 

[ppataki]

Hello,
What is the benefit of using one frontend per user?
I have already tried it and as the tables are linked to the backend, if a user opens the frontend, the backend gets locked as well, I cant do any macro or table design modifications etc.. so the situation is the same as using one frontend

Thank you

 

[neileg]

See my last post! Eperience has shown that if multiple users use the same front end then the risk of data corruption is increased.