Access 2007 - create a field with a space " " in it

[oliviar]

Hi Guys,
I need a column in my table I'm exporting to excel to have a space in it.
In Access the space is there. In Excel, the space is gone. In turns into cells without spaces, but which nevertheless don't count as blank. So far I have done it like this SpaceCol: " "

On a related note, I need a way to make a field with a specific title, but the entire column needs to be blank - REALLY blank. When I do BlankCol: "" it does that annoying blank-but-not-really-blank-in-excel trick.



Help appreciated,
thanks

 

[xenou]

1) The the space column should work fine. Are you sure there's a space between the quotes? In what way are you viewing or exporting this to Excel?

2) For blank columns, try BlankCol: Null
But I wouldn't assume Excel will treat this as really really blank. It's data.

 

[oliviar]

Hi Xenou,
The space IS there in Access... but the exportation to Excel seems to remove it.
I even tested it with about 10 spaces, just to check. No matter what, the exportation process removes the spaces, be it 1 space, or 10 spaces.

 

[xenou]

What is the "export process" you are using and what version of Access are you using? Also, what are you actually exporting? Is this a query you are describing?

 

[oliviar]

I'm exporting it to excel, using the standard export feature in access

 

[xenou]

It appears Access automatically shortens a single space in a field to "" - treating it as an empty string. I didn't know that - it's interesting and I learned something today. However, I would advise not to use single spaces as field contents - it seems to promise many troubles, of which this is only the beginning. You are welcome to describe what you are really trying to do and maybe a better way can be found. I'm pretty sure you'll find few (if any) experienced Access developers using single spaces in fields.

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