Search options for Number field treat it as a string, not a number

[Derek Atkins]

Hi,

Michael Hendry <hendry.michael at gmail.com> writes:

[snip]
> I thought I should be able to use Edit=>Find and select Number
> >=117894 (for example) to find out if the top receipt was the most
> recently numbered transaction, but the options are "contains",
> "matches regex" and "does not match regex".
>
> I appreciate that the Number column is allowed to contain alphabetic
> as well as numeric characters (which annuls the value of the "+" key
> to get the next number in the sequence).

The Number column *IS* a text column.  It's only treated as a number for
sorting purposes and for the shortcut '+' to key choose the next number
for a register.  However there is absolutely no requirement that you
input solely numerical input.

This is also why the search works the way it does; the data field is a
string, so it can only be searched like a string.

> I've worked around the problem by using "Contains" 11789 (as in the
> above example), but this has obvious flaws.
>
> Can anyone suggest a more reliable way of determining the highest
> number used in the Number field of any register?

Open the GL and use the + key from there? 

> Michael

> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.

-derek

-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
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