I would not use any functions to "format" the result. I would just grab the value, and deal with it.

Let me ask.... what would you do if you had to replicate this view so that it was grabbing information from SQL Server, or Oracle? I don't know whether or not they support the equivalent of NVL(), but I wouldn't force my interface to rely on it.

>Well, then it may be an issue of poor database design that I'm encountering. Seeing that I'm by myself however I have no one to check that with.
>I have a left join condition that could return a null value for instance, and I want to present this in the following way:
>NVL(Types.cabbreviation,"NONE") as cClientGroup
>so that no logic has to exist in the form or control that would have to know what to do with null. It looks like I would use the expression column in xcase, or define a virtual field in the Types table. In the first case the column for expression is not available during the view design, and in the second the virtual field doesn't show up in the available fields for the path. What would you, or anyone else do to implement this?
>
>Mike