>Dear Sirs:
>
>I want to format negative numbers enclosing in parentheses in an accounting package. I print the numbers with the following instruction (supossing value = -120):
>
>transform(value, "@(R 999,999,999.99")
>
>the output will be:
>
>( 120.00)
>
>But i don't know how to display this in a textbox or in a grid using FORMAT and INPUTMASK properties.

Generally, anything that was between the @ and the space in the picture string goes into the Format property (without the @ sign), and the rest goes into the inputmask. Unfortunately, the parenthesis is not on the list of recognized characters for the format property. So... not in a textbox. You may play with formatting the value as text when the focus is not in the textbox, and replacing it with a real number when it is. Make it half-bound, in a way.