>Interesting, this
>

>Dim myval As Decimal = oReader("priorpmt")
>Response.Write(myval.ToString("$ #0,0.00"))
>

>will work, but
>

>Response.Write(oReader("priorpmt").ToString("$ #0,0.00"))
>

>will not. So it looks like the reader is presenting a string and not a number.

As far as I know, oReader returns an Object. May be that's why the extra variable is important. Can you try oReader("myField").Value.ToString... ?

Actually, see OleDbDataReader..::.GetDecimal Method http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.data.oledb.oledbdatareader.getdecimal.aspx

Looks like this is what we want to use here - try to find examples.