Why this odd result?

[terrypin]

Hopefully a self explanatory illustration:

 

What am I missing here?

 

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

[rberq]

%tAlternative% may truly have length 24, but leading or trailing blanks may be disappearing during the Display. Try this:

 

Set a variable to the asterisk, or a capital X, or anything you like.

Variable Set String %tX% "X"

Then concatenate your new variable to the beginning and end of %tAlternative%, and display your new concatenated variable. You will then be able to see whether there are embedded leading or trailing blanks.

 

Or simply right-trim and left-trim %tAlternative% before setting the length.

[terrypin]

Thanks Bob, you're right. The macro later steps leftward from the end of tAlternative looking for the first '\' . I temporarily added a Text Display to show this character. I also used your suggestion, but simply with Add Text.

 

It seems there are 2 invisible characters at the end of every Excel cell, probably CR LF, because the display continues on a new line. And in a text editor a Backspace just jumps up to the right of the visible string.

 

I'll use Right Trim.

 

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

[Samrae]

Terry, Variable Modify String: Right Trim won't remove the CRLF. Try Variable Modify String: Strip CR/LF instead.

[terrypin]

Thanks Samrae.

 

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

[Cory]

http://bluepointdesign.com/macros/TabularData/Default.aspx

You might consider reading this.

[terrypin]

Thanks Cory.

 

Terry, East Grinstead, UK