Format Numbers

 

! - If a ! character appears in the mask, leading blanks don't appear in the data. If a ! character is not present, trailing blanks don't appear in the data.

> - If a > character appears in the mask, all characters that follow are in uppercase until the end of the mask or until a < character is encountered.

< - If a < character appears in the mask, all characters that follow are in lowercase until the end of the mask or until a > character is encountered.

<> - If these two characters appear together in a mask, no case checking is done and the data is formatted with the case the user uses to enter the data.

\ - The character that follows a \ character is a literal character. Use this character when you want to allow any of the mask special characters as a literal in the data.

L - The L character requires only an alphabetic character only in this position. For the US, this is A-Z, a-z.

l - The l character permits only an alphabetic character in this position, but doesn't require it.

A - The A character requires an alphanumeric character only in this position. For the US, this is A-Z, a-z, 0-9.

a - The a character permits an alphanumeric character in this position, but doesn't require it.

C - The C character requires a character in this position.

c - The c character permits a character in this position, but doesn't require it.

0 - The 0 character requires a numeric character only in this position.

9 - The 9 character permits a numeric character in this position, but doesn't require it.

# - The # character permits a numeric character or a plus or minus sign in this position, but doesn't require it.

: - The : character is used to separate hours, minutes, and seconds in times. If the character that separates hours, minutes, and seconds is different in the International settings of the Control Panel utility on your

computer system, that character is used instead of :.

/ - The / character is used to separate months, days, and years in dates. If the character that separates months, days, and years is different in the International settings of the Control Panel utility on your computer system, that character is used instead of /.

; - The ; character is used to separate masks.

_ - The _ character automatically inserts a blank in the edit box. When the user enters characters in the field the cursor skips the blank character.

The Format property determines the manner in which a numeric fields will be displayed.  Valid formatting masks include the following:

     0 - Digit placeholder. If the value being formatted has a digit in the position where the '0' appears in the format string, then that digit is copied to the output string. Otherwise, a '0' is stored in that position in the output string.

     # - Digit placeholder. If the value being formatted has a digit in the position where the '#' appears in the format string, then that digit is copied to the output string. Otherwise, nothing is stored in that position in the output string.

     . - Decimal point. The first '.' character in the format string determines the location of the decimal separator in the formatted value; any additional '.' characters are ignored. The actual character used as a the decimal separator in the output string is determined by the DecimalSeparator system setting. The default value of DecimalSeparator is specified in the Number Format of the International section in the Windows Control Panel.

     , - Thousand separator. If the format string contains one or more ',' characters, the output will have thousand separators inserted between each group of three digits to the left of the decimal point. The placement and number of ',' characters in the format string does not affect the output, except to indicate that thousand separators are wanted. The actual character used as a the thousand separator in the output is determined by the ThousandSeparatorsystem setting. The default value of ThousandSeparator is specified in the Number Format of the International section in the Windows Control Panel.

     E+ - Scientific notation. If any of the strings 'E+', 'E-', 'e+', or 'e-' are contained in the format string, the number is formatted using scientific notation. A group of up to four '0' characters can immediately follow the 'E+', 'E-', 'e+', or 'e-' to determine the minimum number of digits in the exponent. The 'E+' and 'e+' formats cause a plus sign to be output for positive exponents and a minus sign to be output for negative exponents. The 'E-' and 'e-' formats output a sign character only for negative exponents.

     'xx'/"xx" - Characters enclosed in single or double quotes are output as-is, and  do not affect formatting.

     ; - Separates sections for positive, negative, and zero numbers in the format string.