>I would use an intermediate .controlSource such as a Form.Property, or manage .value myself without .controlSource
>

>controlSource = 'thisForm.property'
>procedure refresh
>store table.field to (this.controlSource)
>
>procedure thisForm.property_assign
>lparameters propertyValue
>replace in table field with padl(ltrim(m.propertyValue, '0'), 9)
>this.property = padl(propertyValue, 9, '0')
>

And when populating that value from the field, strip the leading zeros

store ltrim(table.field, 1, "0") to (this.controlSource)