Format (expression [,fmt ] )
Formats a string, number or variant datatype to a format expression.
Format returns returns a string
Part Description
expression Expression to be formatted.
fmt A string of characters that specify how the expression is to displayed. or the name of a commonly-used format that has been predefined in Enable Basic. Do not mix different type format expressions in a single fmt parameter.
if the fmt parameter is omitted or is zero-length and the expression parameter is a numeric, Format[$] provides the same functionality as the Str[$] function by converting the numeric value to the appropriate return data type, Positive numbers convert to strings using Format[$] lack the leading space reserved for displaying the sign of the value, whereas those converted using Str[$] retain the leading space.
To format numbers, you can use the commonly-used formats that have been predefined in Enable Basic or you can create user-defined formats with standard characters that have special meaning when used in a format expression.
Predefined numeric format names:
Format
Name Description
General Display the number as is, with no thousand Separators
Number
Fixed Display at least one digit to the left and two digits to the right of the decimal separator.
Standard Display number with thousand separator, if appropriate; display two digits to the right of the decimal separator.
Percent Display number multiplied by 100 with a percent sign (%) appended to the right’ display two digits to the right of the decimal separator.
Format
Name Description
|
Scientific Use standard scientific notation.
True/False Display False if number is 0, otherwise display True.
The following shows the characters you can use to create user-defined number formats.
Character Meaning
Null string Display the number with no formatting.
0 Digit placeholder.
Display a digit or a zero
If the number being formatted has fewer digits than there are zeros (on either side of the decimal) in the format expression, leading or trailing zeros are displayed. If the number has more digits to the right of the decimal separator than there are zeros to the right of the decimal separator in the format expression, the number is rounded to as many decimal places as there are zeros. If the number has more digits to left of the decimal separator than there are zeros to the left of the decimal separator in the format expression, the extra digits are displayed without modification.
# Digit placeholder.
Displays a digit or nothing. If there is a digit in the expression being formatted in the position where the # appears in the format string, displays it; otherwise, nothing is displayed.
. Decimal placeholder.
The decimal placeholder determines how many digits are displayed to the left and right of the decimal separator.
Character Meaning
 |
% Percentage placeholder.
The percent character (%) is inserted in the position where it appears in the format string. The expression is multiplied by 100.
, Thousand separator.
The thousand separator separates thousands from hundreds within a number that has four or more places to the left of the decimal separator.
Use of this separator as specified in the format statement contains a comma surrounded by digit placeholders(0 or #). Two adjacent commas or a comma immediately to the left of the decimal separator (whether or not a decimal is specified) means “scale the number by dividing it by 1000, rounding as needed.”
E-E+e-e+ Scientific format.
If the format expression contains at least one digit placeholder (0 or #) to the right of E-,E+,e- or e+, the number is displayed in scientific formatted E or e inserted between the number and its exponent. The number of digit placeholders to the right determines the number of digits in the exponent. Use E- or e- to place a minus sign next to negative exponents. Use E+ or e+ to place a plus sign next to positive exponents.
: Time separator.
The actual character used as the time separator depends on the Time Format specified in the International section of the Control Panel.
/ Date separator.
The actual character used as the date separator in the formatted out depends on Date Format specified in the International section of the Control Panel.
Character
Meaning
- + $ ( ) Display a literal character.
space
To display a character other than one of those listed, precede it with a backslash (\).
\ Display the next character in the format string.
The backslash itself isn’t displayed. To display a backslash, use two backslashes (\\).
Examples of characters that can’t be displayed as literal characters are the date- and time- formatting characters (a,c,d,h,m,n,p,q,s,t,w,y, and /:), the numeric -formatting characters(#,0,%,E,e,comma, and period), and the string- formatting characters (@,&,<,>, and !).
“String” Display the string inside the double quotation marks.
To include a string in fmt from within Enable, you must use the ANSI code for a double quotation mark Chr(34) to enclose the text.
* Display the next character as the fill character.
Any empty space in a field is filled with the character following the asterisk.
Unless the fmt argument contains one of the predefined formats, a format expression for numbers can have from one to four sections separated by semicolons.
If you use The result is
 |
One section The format expression applies to all values.
only
Two The first section applies to positive values, the second to negative sections values.
Three The first section applies to positive values, the second to negative sections values, and the third to zeros.
Four The first section applies to positive values, the second to negative section values, the third to zeros, and the fourth to Null values.
The following example has two sections: the first defines the format for positive values and zeros; the second section defines the format for negative values.
“$#,##0; ($#,##0)”
If you include semicolons with nothing between them. the missing section is printed using the format of the positive value. For example, the following format displays positive and negative values using the format in the first section and displays “Zero” if the value is zero.
“$#,##0;;\Z\e\r\o”
Some sample format expressions for numbers are shown below. (These examples all assume the Country is set to United States in the International section of the Control Panel.) The first column contains the format strings. The other columns contain the output the results if the formatted data has the value given in the column headings
Format (fmt) Positive 3 Negative 3 Decimal .3 Null
|
Null string 3 -3 0.3
0 3 -3 1
0.00 3.00 -3.00 0.30
#,##0 3 -3 1
#,##0.00;;;Nil 3.00 -3.00 0.30 Nil
$#,##0;($#,##0) $3 ($3) $1
$#,##0.00;($#,##0.00)$3.00 ($3.00) $0.30
0% 300% -300% 30%
0.00% 300.00% -300.00% 30.00%
0.00E+00 3.00E+00 -3.00E+00 3.00E-01
0.00E-00 3.00E00 -3.00E00 3.00E-01
Numbers can also be used to represent date and time information. You can format date and time serial numbers using date and time formats or number formats because date/time serial numbers are stored as floating-point values.
To format dates and times, you can use either the commonly used format that have been predefined or create user-defined time formats using standard meaning of each:
The following table shows the predefined data format names you can use and the meaning of each.
Format
Name Description
 |
General Display a date and/or time. for real numbers, display a date and time.(e.g. 4/3/93 03:34 PM); If there is no fractional part, display only a date (e.g. 4/3/93); if there is no integer part, display time only (e.g. 03:34 PM).
Long Date Display a Long Date, as defined in the International section of the Control Panel.
Medium Display a date in the same form as the Short Date, as defined in the international section of the Control Panel, except spell out the month abbreviation.
Short Date Display a Short Date, as defined in the International section of the Control Panel.
Long Time Display a Long Time, as defined in the International section of the Control panel. Long Time includes hours, minutes, seconds.
Medium Display time in 12-hour format using hours and minuets and the Time AM/PM designator.
Time
Short Time Display a time using the 24-hour format (e.g. 17:45)
This table shows the characters you can use to create user-defined date/time formats.
Character Meaning
|
c Display the date as dddd and display the time as ttttt. in the order.
d Display the day as a number without a leading zero (1-31).
dd Display the day as a number with a leading zero (01-31).
ddd Display the day as an abbreviation (Sun-Sat).
ddddd Display a date serial number as a complete date (including day , month, and year).
Character Meaning
|
w Display the day of the week as a number (1- 7 ).
ww Display the week of the year as a number (1-53).
m Display the month as a number without a leading zero (1-12). If m immediately follows h or hh, the minute rather than the month is displayed.
mm Display the month as a number with a leading zero (01-12). If mm immediately follows h or hh, the minute rather than the month is displayed.
mmm Display the month as an abbreviation (Jan-Dec).
mmmm Display the month as a full month name (January-December).
q display the quarter of the year as a number (1-4).
y Display the day of the year as a number (1-366).
yy Display the day of the year as a two-digit number (00-99)
yyyy Display the day of the year as a four-digit number (100-9999).
h Display the hour as a number without leading zeros (0-23).
hh Display the hour as a number with leading zeros (00-23).
n Display the minute as a number without leading zeros (0-59).
nn Display the minute as a number with leading zeros (00-59).
s Display the second as a number without leading zeros (0-59).
ss Display the second as a number with leading zeros (00-59).
ttttt Display a time serial number as a complete time (including hour, minute, and second) formatted using the time separator defined by the Time Format in the International section of the Control Panel. A leading zero is displayed if the Leading Zero option is selected and the time is before 10:00 A.M. or P.M. The default time format is h:mm:ss.
AM/PM Use the 12-hour clock and display an uppercase AM/PM
am/pm Use the 12-hour clock display a lowercase am/pm
Character Meaning
|
A/P Use the 12-hour clock display a uppercase A/P
a/p Use the 12-hour clock display a lowercase a/p
AMPM Use the 12-hour clock and display the contents of the 11:59 string (s1159) in the WIN.INI file with any hour before noon; display the contents of the 2359 string (s2359) with any hour between noon and 11:59 PM. AMPM can be either uppercase or lowercase, but the case of the string displayed matches the string as it exists in the WIN.INI file. The default format is AM/PM.
The Following are examples of user-defined date and time formats:
Format Display
 |
m/d/yy 2/26/65
d-mmmm-yy 26-February-65
d-mmmm 26 February
mmmm-yy February 65
hh:nn AM/PM 06:45 PM
h:nn:ss a/p 6:45:15 p
h:nn:ss 18:45:15
m/d/yy/h:nn 2/26/65 18:45
Strings can also be formatted with Format[$]. A format expression for strings can have one section or two sections separated by a semicolon.
If you use The result is
 |
One section only The format applies to all string data.
Two sections The first section applies to string data, the second to Null values and zero-length strings.
The following characters can be used to create a format expression for strings:
@ Character placeholder.
Character Meaning
|
@ Character placeholder.
Displays a character or a space. Placeholders are filled from right to left unless there is an ! character in the format string.
& Character placeholder. Display a character or nothing.
< Force lowercase.
> Force uppercase.
! Force placeholders to fill from left to right instead of right to left.
Related Topic: Str, Str$ Function..
Example:
' Format Function Example
' This example shows various uses of the Format function to format values
' using both named and user-defined formats. For the date separator (/),
' time separator (:), and AM/ PM literal, the actual formatted output
' displayed by your system depends on the locale settings on which the code
' is running. When times and dates are displayed in the development
' environment, the short time and short date formats of the code locale
' are used. When displayed by running code, the short time and short date
' formats of the system locale are used, which may differ from the code
' locale. For this example, English/United States is assumed.
' MyTime and MyDate are displayed in the development environment using
' current system short time and short date settings.
Sub Main
MyTime = "08:04:23 PM"
MyDate = "03/03/95"
MyDate = "January 27, 1993"
MsgBox Now
MsgBox MyTime
MsgBox Second( MyTime ) & " Seconds"
MsgBox Minute( MyTime ) & " Minutes"
MsgBox Hour( MyTime ) & " Hours"
MsgBox Day( MyDate ) & " Days"
MsgBox Month( MyDate ) & " Months"
MsgBox Year( MyDate ) & " Years"
' Returns current system time in the system-defined long time format.
MsgBox Format(Time, "Short Time")
MyStr = Format(Time, "Long Time")
' Returns current system date in the system-defined long date format.
MsgBox Format(Date, "Short Date")
MsgBox Format(Date, "Long Date")
MyStr Format(MyTime, "h:n:s") ' Returns "17:4:23".
MyStr Format(MyTime, "hh:nn:ss")' Returns "20:04:22 ".
MyStr Format(MyDate, "dddd, mmm d yyyy")' Returns "Wednesday, Jan 27 1993".
' If format is not supplied, a string is returned.
MsgBox Format(23) ' Returns "23".
' User-defined formats.
MsgBox Format(5459.4, "##,##0.00") ' Returns "5,459.40".
MsgBox Format(334.9, "###0.00") ' Returns "334.90".
MsgBox Format(5, "0.00%") ' Returns "500.00%".
MsgBox Format("HELLO", "<") ' Returns "hello".
MsgBox Format("This is it", ">") ' Returns "THIS IS IT".
End Sub