Problem outputting to text box using VBA

[billelev]

This is probably a very easy question to answer:

I have been outputting some text to a message box, similar to the following:

strOutput = "---" & Chr(10) & Chr(10)
strOutput = strOutput & "VAR:" & AddTabs(1) & Format(rsVar![VAR], "currency")
strOutput = strOutput & Chr(10) & Chr(10)
strOutput = strOutput & "Position Value:" & AddTabs(1) & Format(rsVar![ValuePosition], "currency") & Chr(10)
strOutput = strOutput & "Position Risk:" & AddTabs(1) & Format(rsVar![valueRisk], "currency") & Chr(10)
msgbox(strOutput)

Which works fine. I tried outputting the same string (strOutput) in a text box on a form, i.e.:

txtBox.caption  = strOutput

The problem is that rather than creating new lines using chr(10), small boxes appear.

Does anyone know an equivalent to chr(10) that will work when sending a string to a text box?

[Stewart Ross]

(Sigh) It takes longer to write a reply than it does for the thread context to change, hence I sent then deleted a message which was out of context of the changed thread.

The last poster makes the point that a listbox control can be used to output columns. It can, but with limitations - there is not much in the way of alignment that can be done, for instance. And it does not answer what you need for output via e-mail. I would suggest using a text export which is tab-delimited or using CSV format to output your columns, rather than trying to do this in the message itself. This would be an attachment task, but at least has the advantage that tabs delineate columns, whereas otherwise the interpretation of tabs depends entirely on the application.

In my experience e-mail applications do not do a good job of tabbing, as they impose defaults in the same way as word processors do - arbitrarily. Some columns line up, some don't as they miss the tab point concerned. Some spill into the next column, and so on.

-Stewart

[NeoPa]

You could try using spaces to format your output. Many text processors use this method even now, especially when no default context is defined. Alternatively, using the same approach, you could use a character other than the space for tabulation formatting (characters frequently used for this include . - _ = * + etc).

PS. Thanks Stewart for that clarification. You translated my message perfectly :)

[billelev]

Thanks for the clarification.

The original context was within an email, wherein a tab character moved in multiples of six character spaces, to the nearest multiple. This made the formatting of the table using tabs a reasonably trivial task. I'll probably try using spaces to format the text within the text box.