Convert Numeric to Character
I'm not very familiar with FoxPro and I'm running into problems trying to modify a report. I have a numeric value that I want to convert to text so that I can get the first four characters, but I am only able to get the first two characters.
When I execute the following in the command window: ? LEFT(STR(20110547),4)
The following value is displayed: 20
I expected it to return 2011. Am I doing something wrong or is there something that I am not accounting for?
Thanks, C.R.
Answer
There are a couple of ways to do this:
LEFT(ALLTRIM(STR(20110547)),4)
You must LTRIM or ALLTRIM the STR function as it adds leading spaces. From the documentation:
STR( ) pads the character string it returns with leading spaces if you specify a length larger than the number of digits to the left of the decimal point. STR( ) returns a string of asterisks, indicating numeric overflow, if you specify a length less than the number of digits to the left of the decimal point.
You could also use the TRANSFORM function:
LEFT(transform(20110547),4)