Microsoft KB Archive/139299

= FIX: Ampersand (&) Appears as Underscore (_) in the Explorer =

Article ID: 139299

Article Last Modified on 10/15/2002

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Visual SourceSafe 4.0 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q139299



SYMPTOMS
The Visual SourceSafe Explorer displays a project or file name with an underscore (_) character. It appears to be a shortcut but does not provide shortcut functionality. The MS-DOS command line shows an ampersand (&) character instead.



RESOLUTION
Do not use files or projects that contain the ampersand (&) character. If there are items that appear this way in the SourceSafe Explorer, then you can easily rename the items by clicking Rename on the File menu. Give the file the same name without the ampersand (&) character.



STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed this to be a bug in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. This problem has been fixed in Visual SourceSafe 5.0.



MORE INFORMATION
The way the ampersand (&) character in Visual SourceSafe works is different in the SourceSafe Explorer from the way it works on the command line. In the SourceSafe Explorer, the ampersand (&) character translates into the underscore (_) character. In most Windows programming languages, the ampersand (&) character is used to define a shortcut key to an item. In Visual SourceSafe, the same appears to happen, but no shortcut is available. The MS-DOS command line interprets this character differently and returns the item as a literal ampersand (&) character in the string.

Steps to Reproduce Problem
 In the SourceSafe Explorer. create a project $/My&Project. Notice the ampersand has changed to an underscore under the P in MyProject. This appears to be a standard Windows shortcut. Press CTRL+P. Notice that nothing happens. The shortcut for MyProject is not active even though there appears to be a valid shortcut defined. Open an MS-DOS command window. Type the following on the command line:

SS DIR $/

 Notice that the MyProject project shows up as My&Project on the command line.</li></ol>

This might occur on files as well as projects. The file may be renamed from the Visual SourceSafe Explorer to eliminate this problem.

Keywords: kbbug kbfix kbssafe500fix KB139299

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