The song "Strange Days" is running through my head for some reason.

I have a form designed for editing a "code-lookup" table (table of codes for a coded field in the app's main table). It's painfully simple: a four-column grid and five command buttons, Add, Save, Cancel, Delete, Close.

The grid columns are:

1) the code for the grid (two digits stored in 2 char field).
2) the description of the code (40 char).
3) the code of another code-lookup table (two digits stored in 2 char field).
   (This code may have an association to a code in the second table.
   If so, the user choosing this code forces the choice of the other code
   in the form for editing the main table's records.)
4) a flag for the code being obsolete (logical field, presented as Y/N).

My problem is with column 3. Notice the code may have an associated code in the other lookup table. So the field may be a code from the other table, or may be blank. My problem: if it's blank, the grid column says .NULL.. No, I know what a NULL is. I said it's blank, and it says .NULL.! It IS NOT NULL! I typed spaces into it! After typing spaces into it, if I open the table from the command window, move to the one record with a blank there, ISNULL(thatfield) is .F., EMPTY(thatfield) is .T.. LIST command also shows it to be a space, although I don't know, LIST might show a NULL value as plain space.

I've double- and triple-checked that the form is opening the table I think it is (not the development copy). Which has become irrelevant, because I replaced the NULL field with spaces in both the test/development area and the live area anyway.

I even closed out of VFP several times after changing the table, and rebooted, just to make sure some sort of weird buffering/disk-caching issue wasn't keeping the old data (or an old copy of the form) in my computer's memory.

How can a textbox in a grid show .NULL. when the ControlSource contains two spaces? (Note: the column's InputMask is '##'. No Format property. No InputMask or Format property in the contained textbox.)

I'm turning gray over this. Please help. (snif)

TIA,