[sjk633]

Using Access 2010, in limited field space on a report, I have reduced relevant name of volunteer offering assistance to first-name & first-letter-of-last-name with the following:-

=[txtHelpFName] & " " & Left([txtHelpLName],1)

All works well when the volunteer details have been provided or known. When they are not available, the field populates with "#Type!", which I would like to modify with a simple "?"

Any suggestions on how this can be achieved? Would an IIF Function work, using the above for the TRUE component of the statement?

Thank you...

[ScottGem]

You are close with the IIF, but the problem appears to be when one or more of the fields is Null. Null is a special value that doesn't mean blank, but rather Nothing. You can trap for Null by changing your expression to:

=Nz([txtHelpFName],"") & " " & Left(Nz([txtHelpLName]," "),1)

I include a space in the second Nz so the Left() function doesn't choke on a zero length string.

If that doesn't work, then you may need to use an IIF to test for Null values.