The other day one of my colleagues asked me to open MS-Word and type the expression =Rand() on a separate line and press Enter key. It was a magic that I didn’t know till that time. The following sentence appears fifteen times repeatedly (in 3 rows and 5 columns) overwriting the expression itself:

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

Open a Document in MS-Word and try it out yourself. The above sentence has all the letters of Alphabet in it. You can control the printing by inputting parameters to the Function like =Rand(5,1) will print the same sentence in 5 lines in one Column. It is a built-in Function with different constructs that can accept different set of parameters and looks like created for fun, I think! It works only when you type it on a separate line. Even though it looks like a Random Function it has nothing to do with it.

There is another feature in MS-Word that, I like to see in MS-Access, formats numeric values in Cardinal Text.

For example, result of the Mail Merge formula { = 9.20 + 5.35 \* CardText } outputs fourteen and 55/100, when the document is merged into another Document or to Printer. Format switches can be either \* DollarText or \* CardText to get the above output. When the \* Caps switch is added to it, like { = 9.20 + 5.35 \* DollarText \* Caps} , then it changes the first letter of each word into upper case.

This is very useful for printing Invoice values in MS-Access. I have written a Function to achieve this in MS-Access and here it is for you to try it out.

Copy and Paste the following Code into a Global Module of your Database and save it:

Public Function CardText(ByVal inNumber As Double, Optional ByVal precision As Integer = 2) As String
'------------------------------------------------------------------------
'Author : a.p.r. pillai
'Date   : December 2008
'URL    : www.msaccesstips.com
'All Rights Reserved by www.msaccesstips.com
'------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dim ctu(0 To 19) As String, ctt(0 To 9) As String, bmth(0 To 4) As String
Dim strNum As String, j As Integer, k As Integer, fmt As String
Dim h As Integer, xten As Integer, yten As Integer
Dim cardseg(1 To 4) As String, txt As String, d As String, txt2 As String
Dim locn As Integer, xfract As String, xhundred As String

On Error GoTo CardText_Err

strNum = Trim(Str(inNumber))
locn = InStr(1, strNum, ".")
'Check Decimal Places and rounding
If locn > 0 Then
  xfract = Mid(strNum, locn + 1)
 strNum = Left(strNum, locn - 1)
    If precision > 0 Then
        If Len(xfract) < precision Then
            xfract = xfract & String$(precision - Len(xfract), "0")
        ElseIf Len(xfract) > precision Then
            xfract = Format(Int(Val(Left(xfract, precision + 1)) / 10 + 0.5), String$(precision, "0"))
        End If
        xfract = IIf(Val(xfract) > 0, xfract & "/" & 10 ^ precision, "")
    Else
        strNum = Val(strNum) + Int(Val("." & xfract) + 0.5)
        xfract = ""
    End If
End If

h = Len(strNum)
If h > 12 Then
'if more than 12 digits take only 12 (max. 999 Billion)
'extra value will get truncated from left.
   strNum = Right(strNum, 12)
Else
   strNum = String$(12 - h, "0") & strNum
End If

GoSub initSection

txt2 = ""
For j = 1 To 4
    If Val(cardseg(j)) = 0 Then
 GoTo NextStep
    txt = ""
    For k = 3 To 1 Step -1
      Select Case k
       Case 3
            xten = Val(Mid(cardseg(j), k - 1, 1))
            If xten = 1 Then
                txt = ctu(10 + Val(Mid(cardseg(j), k, 1)))
            Else
                txt = ctt(xten) & ctu(Val(Mid(cardseg(j), k, 1)))
            End If
        Case 1
            yten = Val(Mid(cardseg(j), k, 1))
            xhundred = ctu(yten) & IIf(yten > 0, bmth(1), "") & txt
            Select Case j
                Case 2
                      d = bmth(2)
                Case 3
                    d = bmth(3)
                Case 4
                    d = bmth(4)
            End Select
            txt2 = xhundred & d & txt2
    End Select
   Next
NextStep:
Next

If Len(txt2) = 0 And Len(xfract) > 0 Then
    txt2 = xfract & " only. "
ElseIf Len(txt2) = 0 And Len(xfract) = 0 Then
    txt2 = ""
Else
  txt2 = txt2 & IIf(Len(xfract) > 0, " and" & xfract, "") & " only."
End If

CardText = txt2

CardText_Exit:
Exit Function

initSection:
ctu(0) = ""
ctu(1) = " One"
ctu(2) = " Two"
ctu(3) = " Three"
ctu(4) = " Four"
ctu(5) = " Five"
ctu(6) = " Six"
ctu(7) = " Seven"
ctu(8) = " Eight"
ctu(9) = " Nine"
ctu(10) = " Ten"
ctu(11) = " Eleven"
ctu(12) = " Twelve"
ctu(13) = " Thirteen"
ctu(14) = " Fourteen"
ctu(15) = " Fifteen"
ctu(16) = " Sixteen"
ctu(17) = " Seventeen"
ctu(18) = " Eighteen"
ctu(19) = " Nineteen"

ctt(0) = ""
ctt(1) = " Ten"
ctt(2) = " Twenty"
ctt(3) = " Thirty"
ctt(4) = " Fourty"
ctt(5) = " Fifty"
ctt(6) = " Sixty"
ctt(7) = " Seventy"
ctt(8) = " Eighty"
ctt(9) = " Ninety"

bmth(0) = ""
bmth(1) = " Hundred"
bmth(2) = " Thousand"
bmth(3) = " Million"
bmth(4) = " Billion"

cardseg(4) = Mid(strNum, 1, 3)
cardseg(3) = Mid(strNum, 4, 3)
cardseg(2) = Mid(strNum, 7, 3)
cardseg(1) = Mid(strNum, 10, 3)
Return

CardText_Err:
CardText = ""
MsgBox Err.Description, , "CardText()"
Resume CardText_Exit
End Function

The Function name CardText() is derived from MS-Word Number Format Switch \* CardText. The CardText() Function can accept a maximum value of 10^12-1 or up to 999 Billion. For most applications this will be sufficient. Passing a Value greater than this will get truncated from left.

The CardText() Function accepts two parameters and the second one is Optional. The second parameter controls the number of digits after decimal places.

By default the CardText() Function will round-off fractional part, if present, to two decimal places when second parameter is omitted.

To try out the Code you may open VBA Editing Window (Alt+F11) and open Immediate Window (Ctrl+G) and type the following statement or similar one with different Value or Expression:

Example: ? CardText(1234.5678,3) will produce the result shown below.

Result: One Thousand Two Hundred Thirty Four and 568/1000 only.

The first parameter can be a Number or an Expression that evaluates to a Numeric Value. If the second parameter is zero then the Number is rounded to the next highest Integer.

Example: ? CardText(1234.5678,0)

Result: Thousand Two Hundred Thirty Five only.

To change the output to upper-case or lower-cases letters enclose the CardText() Function in UCase() or LCase() built-in function respectively.

Example: ? UCase(CardText(1234.5678))

Result: ONE THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED THIRTY FOUR AND 57/100 ONLY.

To prefix a Currency Description use the following example:

Example: ? "Dollars" & CardText(1234.5678)

Or

="Dollars" & CardText([UnitPrice]) on Forms or Reports.

Result: Dollars One Thousand Two Hundred Thirty Four and 57/100 only.

You may try the Function on Form or Report with data field Value as input.

The CardText() Function is not extensively field tested and if you find bugs please let me know. Use it at your own risk.

Any suggestions for improvement are welcome.