Non-English text display problem with functions

Question

My particular problem is with Thai Access/Windows but I wonder if it occurs with other language versions as well. This problem does not occur 100% of the time. In fact, in the following example the control was displaying properly for a short time.

Here's an example. The same thing has happened with the month part of date() (formatted 'long date')

- A custom function looks up and returns a table field (as string), which contains Thai text.
- A control with that function as its datasource shows ?????????? instead of characters.
- Cut and paste the field from the table into the control - it displays properly (which indicates that the format/font of the control is okay, I believe).
- Run the function in the debug window, it displays properly.

Anyone seen this before or have any idea on how to work around it?

Answer

From: Shamil Salakhetdinov <shamil@marta.darts.spb.ru>
To: ACCESS-L <ACCESS-L@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM>
Subject: Re: non-English text display problem with functions
Date: 29 May 1999 19:32

Peter,

I've the same problem with the function returning string with Russian text. (English WinNT/Acc97 but russian fonts are installed (improperly(?)). This seems to be a bug (feature). Testing function returning russian text I've found the same as you: when it is used as a control source is returns a string of Asc(63) - "?". When used in debug window it returns proper string of russian chars. But when used in query it again returns improper string of "?".

Workaround for form's control - use VBA:

me![ctlWithRussainText] = MyTestFunction()

Workaround for query's field:

None?

HTH,
Shamil