what should happen if

[Robert Pulliam M.D.]

    Filepro 5.0
   Record is as follows-

CLM*INV1191*175***11::1*Y*A*Y*A*B~
There is only one field in this record as above     
    
INV1191 is the invoice # and can contain up to 8  numbers after the INV.

I use a mid string function as follows:

aa = mid(1,"8","8")
aa then equals 1191*175

I then set ab(8,.0) = aa
I expected this to give and edit error but ab was actually 1191.   This works fine for my purposes but I was surprised that it worked.
When I test the .0 edit I cannot enter 1191*175 as expected, it only takes 1191.  The fact that this works prevents looping or using the instr function to extract the actual invoice number.  Is this expected behavoir?  Is there a better way to extract the number from this field - the number following the INV may be between one and eight numbers.   This works for any of these.

Thanks in advance -  Robert P. Pulliam M.D. 
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