> Essentially, I want to know how to allow null dates into the
> database. Eg if I edit a record, and the DBEdit box shows
> '14/02/2002', I can blank out all the numbers to get ' / / '.
> However Delphi then complains that ' / / ' is not a valid date!

> Any ideas?

A very good question.

I am guessing that you are using a dialect 3 database, with a
fieldtype of DATE. If you were using a field type of TIMESTAMP I dont
think you would see this problem.

At the moment it appears that IBO is enforcing a default editmask when
using DATE (or defining IB_NOTIME on a timestamp field). The default
editmask is based on the locale shortdate format.

A work around for this may be to define an explicit mask of
'ccccccccccccccccc' (or similar). In the mean time I will investigate
what can be done to avoid this problem (without breaking existing apps
that rely on this default editmask capability).

If you were using native controls I may be able to offer some other
alternatives.

--
Geoff Worboys - TeamIBO
Telesis Computing