conditional execution

Hi,

I'm a new JavaScript user, trying to do something I thought would be simple.

I have been trying to use conditional execution in a form in Adobe. In a nutshell: The form is a refund form I need to fill out regularly in order to be reimbursed for travel and other research related expenses. There are four fields in which I can insert values (currency type), and there there is never more than one field containing a value in a row.

In addition, there is a column for “exchange rates”, for “Exchange”, and for “Total; the latter two is where I want to use conditional execution using a simple if / else construction. Each field (Exch1 and Tot1) contains the following script, which first defines some variables and retrieves values for these from relevant fields, then calculates the exchange on a cost if I insert the exchange rate; if the field for exchange rates is empty, the script will put nothing in the field. The same process should work for the second field (Tot1).

This is the script:

Rate = this.getField("Rate1").value;
X = this.getField("Exch1").value;
M = this.getField("Meals1").value;
A = this.getField("Hotel1").value;
T = this.getField("Trvl1").value;
O = this.getField("Other1").value;
Tot = M + A + T + O;

if (Rate=="") {
event.value = "";
} else {
event.value = Tot + X; [NOTE: to calculate the exchange rate, this will be Rate * X]
}

From my form (where I’m using some dummy values to test the script) I have the following:
Rate = .05
M = “”
A = $150.58
T = “”
O = “”
The format of the fields whose values are placed in M, A, T, and O is “Number”, with $ sign displayed and 2 decimal places (i.e. these are fields containing currency). The same format applies to “Exch1” and the field in which the formula resides (= Tot1).

Result of Rate * X = $7.53
Result of event.value SHOULD be $150.58 + $7.53 = $158.11 [that is, that’s what I’m expecting]
Instead it is $1.#R

I am just a beginner in JavaScript, and can’t figure out why my little script is doing this. If I remove the formatting from Exch1 and Tot1 the results are equally odd (instead of $1.#R, the result is 150.587.529). It looks like my script is treating these values as text rather than numbers, and is concatening them, rather than adding them.

Am I right? Any suggestions as to how to fix this? I’m not at home, so don’t have my Javascript reference with me. Is there a statement that converts a string to a number?

I read the "Conditional Execution" tutorial, which made clear to me how the basic calculations worked, but it doesn't have anything to say about my little problem as far as I can tell.

Or is the solution much simpler?

Bill Schipper