BUG: Internal Protection Fault When Using Format Function (241481)

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Visual Basic Learning Edition for Windows 6.0
Microsoft Visual Basic Professional Edition for Windows 6.0
Microsoft Visual Basic Enterprise Edition for Windows 6.0

This article was previously published under Q241481

SYMPTOMS

If you use the Format function to format a numeric character sequence, and include a format sequence that includes a numeric value to be used in the Null section of the format, you may get this error:

The instruction at "0x65396ac3" referenced memory at "0x00000028". The memory could not be "read"

NOTE: The exact memory locations may vary from system to system.

RESOLUTION

To work around this problem, you need to escape all of the characters in the fourth section of the numeric format. For example, instead of:

format$(Null,"#,##0.00;;;0.00")

you should do:

format$(Null,"#,##0.00;;;\0\.\0\0")

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a bug in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

MORE INFORMATION

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

Start a new Standard EXE project. Form1 is created by default.
Add a Command Button to the form. It is Command1.

Add the following code to the form:

Private Sub Command1_Click()
     Msgbox format$(Null,"#,##0.00;;;0.00")
End Sub

Run the Code. When you press Command1, you should get an error that says:
The instruction at "0x65396ac3" referenced memory at "0x00000028". The memory could not be "read".
NOTE: The exact memory locations may vary from system to system.

REFERENCES

Numeric formats are covered in the Visual Basic Documentation under the section: "Different Formats for Different Numeric Values (Format Function)"

Modification Type:	Major	Last Reviewed:	5/8/2003
Keywords:	kbbug kberrmsg kbpending KB241481 kbAudDeveloper