Preserve Leading Zeros Question

[theflyingminst]

Hi I need to get the value of a number (-1). If the number has leading zeros they are deleted on output for some reason or another.

Is there a way to preserve any leading zeros that might be present in "number" to be re-outputted in "numberm1"?

dim number
dim numberm1

number = "00500"

numberm1 = number - 1

response.write numberm1

Thanks so much