Colo(u)r - what is the return value of the RGB Function?

[TOPSie]

In any new code I develop I use the RGB function when defining control backcolor. But I have come across some old code which I am trying to tweak which just uses a Long value for colour definition.



The problem is it seems back to front and inconsistent.

In a table of "colour correspondence" a value of "A" has a colour value (long) of 255 - (which if I was starting from scratch I would use RGB(255,0,0).

If the control has a value of "A" this value (255) when assigned control.backcolor = 255 renders the control RED in some cases - but in others it appears as GREEN (RGB(0,255,0)

Both cases of the code use the same lookup to find "A" = 255 and make similar backcolor assignment. So I am very confused

Can anyome explain the return value of the RGB function because it isn't a simple conversion of FF0000 which would be 16711680 (if I put this value in my lookup table it makes BLUE

[moke123]

rgb function returns a long

[davegri]

Can anyome explain the return value of the RGB function because it isn't a simple conversion of FF0000 which would be 16711680 (if I put this value in my lookup table it makes BLUE

No, I don't think anyone can explain the logic behind color representation consistency. The consistent element is inconsistency. Any claimed solution can be shot full of holes or is so convoluted as to be useless. When assigning colors, forget the numbers. Use a color picker to assign colors visually. To duplicate the chosen color, copy/paste the .backcolor property from one control to another. Good luck.

[June7]

Review this recent discussion https://www.accessforums.net/showthread.php?t=89622

[TOPSie]

OK.
Somewhere in my original question I noted that one control was Green even though I was setting its Backcolor to Red. The issue here was that the control also had Conditional Formatting (to Green) so this obviously is actioned after the set Backcolor - So lesson here is to also check Conditional Formatting - which you have to dig down to find as it is not obvious from the Properties pane.

So with that out of the way back to Colours in general.
What seems to be happening here is that the RGB function should probably be called BGR.

If you set a Colour to vbRed or RGB(255.0,0) then it is displayed as Red (as you would expect) - but if you look at what is actually returned by RGB it is 255 not 16711680. as you might have thought.

So if you want to do your own colour scheme and you have got an RGB value from somewhere then before you pass the value to the vba RGB function you must swop over the R and B elements

So FF0000 becomes 0000FF

:-)