Query using joined tables

[Carl B Davis]

Help please!!! I am an intermediate access user that is getting my
bottom kicked by what seems an easy problem to fix. I maintain an
employee database at work. I have set up a query from two tables to
generate a query displaying useful fields, but only for those whom
appear on both tables. The names are formatted different so I chose to
join them using the SSN. I set up the query and joined the SSN
property but when I run the query, it comes up blank (despite there
being several matches).
Here is some additional info if it helps. The two tables I am
using are exported from other programs that are used at work. One
exports the SSN with hyphens as placeholders, the other just exports
the number itself. I thought that was the problem so I set up both
tables with an identical input mask and ensured that the field
properties are also identical. Troubleshooting I found that if I go
back and manually reenter the SSN in one of the tables, it will work
exactly as it should.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[Paul]

Input masks change the way the data is viewed. It does not necessarily
store the value that way unless you use ;0;_ at the end of the mask...Its
the 0 that forces access to save the value in the same way as it appears on
your screen. Another option is to strip out the hyphens from the one SSN or
add in hyphens into the one thats missing them.

HTH
Paul

"Carl B Davis" <cb***********@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:f5**************************@posting.google.c om...

Help please!!! I am an intermediate access user that is getting my
bottom kicked by what seems an easy problem to fix. I maintain an
employee database at work. I have set up a query from two tables to
generate a query displaying useful fields, but only for those whom
appear on both tables. The names are formatted different so I chose to
join them using the SSN. I set up the query and joined the SSN
property but when I run the query, it comes up blank (despite there
being several matches).
Here is some additional info if it helps. The two tables I am
using are exported from other programs that are used at work. One
exports the SSN with hyphens as placeholders, the other just exports
the number itself. I thought that was the problem so I set up both
tables with an identical input mask and ensured that the field
properties are also identical. Troubleshooting I found that if I go
back and manually reenter the SSN in one of the tables, it will work
exactly as it should.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!