diff --git a/lib/WebGUI/Operation/Profile.pm b/lib/WebGUI/Operation/Profile.pm
index 226da36cf..013096157 100644
--- a/lib/WebGUI/Operation/Profile.pm
+++ b/lib/WebGUI/Operation/Profile.pm
@@ -118,8 +118,10 @@ sub validateProfileData {
 	$a = WebGUI::SQL->read("select * from userProfileField,userProfileCategory where userProfileField.profileCategoryId=userProfileCategory.profileCategoryId
 		   and userProfileCategory.editable=1 and userProfileField.editable=1 order by userProfileCategory.sequenceNumber,userProfileField.sequenceNumber");
 	while (%field = $a->hash) {
-		$data{$field{fieldName}} = WebGUI::Macro::negate(WebGUI::FormProcessor::process($field{fieldName},$field{dataType}, $field{dataDefault}));
-		if ($field{required} && $data{$field{fieldName}} eq "") {
+		my $holder = WebGUI::FormProcessor::process($field{fieldName},$field{dataType}, $field{dataDefault});
+		WebGUI::Macro::negate(\$holder);
+		$data{$field{fieldName}} = $holder;
+		if ($field{required} && !($data{$field{fieldName}})) {
 			$error .= '<li>'.(WebGUI::Operation::Shared::secureEval($field{fieldLabel})).' '.WebGUI::International::get(451).'</li>';
 		}
 		elsif($field{fieldName} eq "email" && isDuplicateEmail($data{$field{fieldName}})){