I am having a problem dealing with index's on numeric fields.

I have a chart of accounts file with three fields. 2 numeric fields coa_glno(ledger#) with a width set to 3 and coa_glsub(ledger sub#) with a width set to 2 and a character description field.

I have a candidate index called coa_glno with the following expression "str(coa_glno)+str(coa_glsub)". If I have a record in the table with a coa_glno of 123 and coa_glsub of 45 I notice that the index expression yields " 123 45". I am not sure why I have all of these leading spaces. This is causing great headaches in trying to do searches on this table with this particular index. I was considering using alltrim in the index. However, how would it distinguish between 123-45 and 12-345?

I am struggling with the best way to handle these indexes and then, also the best way to search on these indexes.

Thanks,
Paul Acton