Question Interpreting blanks as zeros?

[laxster]

I was wondering if it's possible to interpret blanks as zeros?

I have many fields which then use expressions to tally them up. I need to use the val of some text fields. There are also number fields which are multiplied by the val in the text fields.

I find that if I don't place a default value to 0 that I get criteria mis-match errors. However, the final output goes to a report, and the report looks unbecoming with the 0s that keep showing up.

Does Access have a way of interpreting the blanks as zeros?

 

[georgedwilkinson]

Take a look at the Nz() function in help. You can use it in the middle of your expressions to give nulls a default value.

 

[laxster]

It looks like that will do what I need it to do!

Is it possible to make it apply to specific columns without it turning into an expression? I can make it an EXPR if there's no other way, but I'm trying to avoid re-writing the entire query as it already contains many expressions.

 

[georgedwilkinson]

You can use it at the time you do the evaluation, if you want. Just use Nz(myobjectname, mydefaultvalue) (off the top of my head-your job to look up the syntax) instead of myobjectname.