title: How do I prevent users to use thousands separator in FileMaker Pro?
body: <p>In FileMaker Pro, when using number field, the user can choose to use a thousand separator or not. For example, if I have a database with a field for the price of an item, the user can either enter <code>1,000</code> or <code>1000</code>.</p>
  
  <p>I am using my database to generate an XML file that needs to be uploaded. The thing is, that my XML scheme dictates that only a value of <code>1000</code> is allowed and not <code>1,000</code>. Therefore, I want to either automatically remove the comma, or (my preference in this case) alert the user when trying to enter a value with a thousand separator.</p>
  
  <p>What I tried is the following. </p>
  
  <p>For the field, I am setting Validation options. For example:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Require Strict data type: Numeric Only</li>
  <li>Validated by calculation: <code>Position ( Self ; ","; 1 ; 1 ) = 0</code></li>
  <li>Validated by calculation: <code>Self = Substitue ( Self, ",", "")</code></li>
  <li>Auto-enter calculation: Filter( Self ; "0123456789." )</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>Unfortunately, none of these work. As the field is defined as a number (and I want to keep it like this, as I am also performing calculations based on this number), the <code>Position</code> function and the <code>Substitute</code> function apparently ignore the thousand separator!</p>
  
  <p><strong>EDIT:</strong>
  Note that I am generating my XML by concatenating a string, for example:</p>
  
  <pre><code>"&lt;Products&gt;&lt;Product&gt;&lt;Name&gt;" &amp; Name &amp; "&lt;/Name&gt;&lt;Price&gt;" &amp; Price &amp; "&lt;/Price&gt;&lt;/Product&gt;&lt;/Product&gt;"
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The reason is that what I am exporting is dependent on the values in my database. Therefore, I am not using the [File][Export records...] function.</p>