title: How do you retrieve a date value from a buffer-field in Progress Openedge?
body: <p>I've got a buffer which contains a mix of data, number and character fields. I am getting the displaying the values of the fields, but for some reason date fields return "?" when I try to add them to a string.</p>
  
  <p>I still get ? even if I do</p>
  
  <p>ASSIGN lvString = lvString + STRING( hField:BUFFER-VALUE ).</p>
  
  <p>I've also tried assigning the BUFFER-VALUE to a local DATE variable, and converting that to a string, but that doesn't work either - still ?.</p>
  
  <p>However if I use the STRING-VALUE attribute, it works fine.</p>
  
  <p>How do I get the value out as a date field, rather than just a string?</p>