Format

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The format option allows you to select standard formatting options or you can create your own custom formatting.



Custom Format Options
The custom format options allows you to format ANY string using the format parameters below. Note, these are the standard parameters.
The format options below are derived from the programming interface of .NET. Please refer to Microsoft.com for any further information on the formatting parameters and techniques.

Pre-Defined Numeric Formats
General Number, G, or g: Displays number with no thousand separator.
Currency, C, or c: Displays number with thousand separator, if appropriate; displays two digits to the right of the decimal separator. Output is based on system locale settings.
Fixed, F, or f: Displays at least one digit to the left and two digits to the right of the decimal separator.
Standard, N, or n: Displays number with thousand separator, at least one digit to the left and two digits to the right of the decimal separator.
Percent: Displays number multiplied by 100 with a percent sign (%) appended immediately to the right; always displays two digits to the right of the decimal separator.

P, or p: Displays number with thousandths separator multiplied by 100 with a percent sign (%) appended to the right and separated by a single space; always displays two digits to the right of the decimal separator.

Scientific: Uses standard scientific notation, providing two significant digits.

E, or e: Uses standard scientific notation, providing six significant digits.

D, or d: Displays number as a string that contains the value of the number in Decimal (base 10) format. This option is supported for integral types (Byte, Short, Integer, Long) only.

X, or x: Displays number as a string that contains the value of the number in Hexadecimal (base 16) format. This option is supported for integral types (Byte, Short, Integer, Long) only.

Yes/No: Displays No if number is 0; otherwise, displays Yes.
True/False: Displays False if number is 0; otherwise, displays True.
On/Off: Displays Off if number is 0; otherwise, displays On.

User Defined Numeric Formats
None   Displays the number with no formatting.   
(0)   Digit placeholder. Displays a digit or a zero. If the expression has a digit in the position where the zero appears in the format string, display it; otherwise, displays a zero in that position. If the number has fewer digits than there are zeros (on either side of the decimal) in the format expression, displays leading or trailing zeros. 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, rounds the number to as many decimal places as there are zeros. If the number has more digits to the left of the decimal separator than there are zeros to the left of the decimal separator in the format expression, displays the extra digits without modification.   

(#)   Digit placeholder. Displays a digit or nothing. If the expression has a digit in the position where the # character appears in the format string, displays it; otherwise, displays nothing in that position. This symbol works like the 0 digit placeholder, except that leading and trailing zeros aren't displayed if the number has fewer digits than there are # characters on either side of the decimal separator in the format expression.
   
(.)   Decimal placeholder. The decimal placeholder determines how many digits are displayed to the left and right of the decimal separator. If the format expression contains only # characters to the left of this symbol; numbers smaller than 1 begin with a decimal separator. To display a leading zero displayed with fractional numbers, use zero as the first digit placeholder to the left of the decimal separator. In some locales, a comma is used as the decimal separator. The actual character used as a decimal placeholder in the formatted output depends on the number format recognized by your system. Thus, you should use the period as the decimal placeholder in your formats even if you are in a locale that uses a comma as a decimal placeholder. The formatted string will appear in the format correct for the locale.   
(%)   Percent placeholder. Multiplies the expression by 100. The percent character (%) is inserted in the position where it appears in the format string.
   
(,)   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. Standard use of the thousand separator is specified if the format contains a thousand separator surrounded by digit placeholders (0 or #). A thousand separator immediately to the left of the decimal separator (whether or not a decimal is specified) or as the rightmost character in the string means "scale the number by dividing it by 1,000, rounding as needed." For example, you can use the format string "##0,." to represent 100 million as 100,000. Numbers smaller than 1,000 but greater or equal to 500 are displayed as 1, and numbers smaller than 500 are displayed as 0. Two adjacent thousand separators in this position scale by a factor of 1 million, and an additional factor of 1,000 for each additional separator. Multiple separators in any position other than immediately to the left of the decimal separator or the rightmost position in the string are treated simply as specifying the use of a thousand separator. In some locales, a period is used as a thousand separator. The actual character used as the thousand separator in the formatted output depends on the Number Format recognized by your system. Thus, you should use the comma as the thousand separator in your formats even if you are in a locale that uses a period as a thousand separator. The formatted string will appear in the format correct for the locale.   

(:)   Time separator. In some locales, other characters may be used to represent the time separator. The time separator separates hours, minutes, and seconds when time values are formatted. The actual character used as the time separator in formatted output is determined by your system settings.
   
(/)   Date separator. In some locales, other characters may be used to represent the date separator. The date separator separates the day, month, and year when date values are formatted. The actual character used as the date separator in formatted output is determined by your system settings.   

(E- E+ e- e+)   Scientific format. If the format expression contains at least one digit placeholder (0 or #) to the left of E-, E+, e-, or e+, the number is displayed in scientific format and E or e is inserted between the number and its exponent. The number of digit placeholders to the left 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 minus sign next to negative exponents and a plus sign next to positive exponents. You must also include digit placeholders to the right of this symbol to get correct formatting.   

- + $ ( )   Literal characters. These characters are displayed exactly as typed in the format string. To display a character other than one of those listed, precede it with a backslash (\) or enclose it in double quotation marks (" ").
   
(\)   Displays the next character in the format string. To display a character that has special meaning as a literal character, precede it with a backslash (\). The backslash itself isn't displayed. Using a backslash is the same as enclosing the next character in double quotation marks. To display a backslash, use two backslashes (\\). Examples of characters that can't be displayed as literal characters are the date-formatting 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 !).
   
("ABC")   Displays the string inside the double quotation marks (" "). To include a string in the style argument from within code, you must use Chr(34) to enclose the text (34 is the character code for a quotation mark (")).   

Examples
The following table contains some sample format expressions for numbers. (These examples all assume that your system's locale setting is English-U.S.) The first column contains the format strings for the Style argument of the Format function; the other columns contain the resulting output if the formatted data has the value given in the column headings.

Format (Style)	"5" formatted as	"-5" formatted as	"0.5" formatted as
Zero-length string ("")	5	-5	0.5
0.00	5.00	-5.00	0.50
0	5	-5	1
#,##0	5	-5	1
$#,##0;($#,##0)	$5	($5)	$1
$#,##0.00;($#,##0.00)	$5.00	($5.00)	$0.50
0%	500%	-500%	50%
0.00%	500.00%	-500.00%	50.00%
0.00E+00	5.00E+00	-5.00E+00	5.00E-01
0.00E-00	5.00E00	-5.00E00	5.00E-01

Pre-Defined Date/Time Formats

General Date, or G: Displays a date and/or time. For example, 4/3/93 05:34 PM. Date display is determined by your system's LocaleID value.
Long Date, Medium Date, or D: Displays a date according to your locale's long date format.
Short Date, or d: Displays a date using your locale's short date format.
Long Time, Medium Time, or T: Displays a time using your locale's long time format; typically includes hours, minutes, seconds.
Short Time, or t: Displays a time using your locale's short time format.
f: Displays the long date and short time according to your locale's format.
F: Displays the long date and long time according to your locale's format.
g: Displays the short date and short time according to your locale's format.
M, m: Displays the month and the day of a date.
R, r: Formats the date and time as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).
s: Formats the date and time as a sortable index.
u: Formats the date and time as a GMT sortable index.
U: Formats the date and time with the long date and long time as GMT.
Y, y: Formats the date as the year and month.


User-Defined Date/Time Formats
(:)   Time separator. In some locales, other characters may be used to represent the time separator. The time separator separates hours, minutes, and seconds when time values are formatted. The actual character used as the time separator in formatted output is determined by your system's LocaleID value.   
(/)   Date separator. In some locales, other characters may be used to represent the date separator. The date separator separates the day, month, and year when date values are formatted. The actual character used as the date separator in formatted output is determined by your locale.   
(%)   Used to indicate that the following character should be read as a single-letter format without regard to any trailing letters. Also used to indicate that a single-letter format is read as a user-defined format. See below for further details.   
d   Displays the day as a number without a leading zero (for example, 1). Use %d if this is the only character in your user-defined numeric format.   
dd   Displays the day as a number with a leading zero (for example, 01).   
ddd   Displays the day as an abbreviation (for example, Sun).   
dddd   Displays the day as a full name (for example, Sunday).   
M   Displays the month as a number without a leading zero (for example, January is represented as 1). Use %M if this is the only character in your user-defined numeric format.   
MM   Displays the month as a number with a leading zero (for example, 01/12/01).    
MMM   Displays the month as an abbreviation (for example, Jan).   
MMMM   Displays the month as a full month name (for example, January).   
gg   Displays the period/era string (for example, A.D.)   
h   Displays the hour as a number without leading zeros using the 12-hour clock (for example, 1:15:15 PM). Use %h if this is the only character in your user-defined numeric format.   
hh   Displays the hour as a number with leading zeros using the 12-hour clock (for example, 01:15:15 PM).   
H   Displays the hour as a number without leading zeros using the 24-hour clock (for example, 1:15:15). Use %H if this is the only character in your user-defined numeric format.   
HH   Displays the hour as a number with leading zeros using the 24-hour clock (for example, 01:15:15).   
m   Displays the minute as a number without leading zeros (for example, 12:1:15). Use %m if this is the only character in your user-defined numeric format.   
mm   Displays the minute as a number with leading zeros (for example, 12:01:15).   
s   Displays the second as a number without leading zeros (for example, 12:15:5). Use %s if this is the only character in your user-defined numeric format.   
ss   Displays the second as a number with leading zeros (for example, 12:15:05).   
F   Displays fractions of seconds. For example ff will display hundredths of seconds, whereas ffff will display ten-thousandths of seconds. You may use up to seven f symbols in your user-defined format. Use %f if this is the only character in your user-defined numeric format.    
T   Uses the 12-hour clock and displays an uppercase A for any hour before noon; displays an uppercase P for any hour between noon and 11:59 P.M. Use %t if this is the only character in your user-defined numeric format.   
tt   For locales that use a 12-hour clock, displays an uppercase AM with any hour before noon; displays an uppercase PM with any hour between noon and 11:59 P.M. For locales that use a 24-hour clock, displays nothing.   
y   Displays the year number (0-9) without leading zeros. Use %y if this is the only character in your user-defined numeric format.   
yy   Displays the year in two-digit numeric format with a leading zero, if applicable.    
yyy   Displays the year in four-digit numeric format.   
yyyy   Displays the year in four-digit numeric format.   
z   Displays the timezone offset without a leading zero (for example, -8). Use %z if this is the only character in your user-defined numeric format.   
zz   Displays the timezone offset with a leading zero (for example, -08)   
zzz   Displays the full timezone offset (for example, -08:00)
   
Example
The following are examples of user-defined date and time formats for December 7, 1958, 8:50 PM, 35 seconds:

Format	Display
M/d/yy	12/7/58
d-MMM	7-Dec
d-MMMM-yy	7-December-58
d MMMM	7 December
MMMM yy	December 58
hh:mm tt	08:50 PM
h:mm:ss t	8:50:35 P
H:mm	20:50
H:mm:ss	20:50:35
M/d/yyyy H:mm	12/7/1958 20:50