String
DataWindow expression function
Description
Formats data as a string according to a specified display format
mask. You can convert and format date, DateTime, numeric, and time data.
You can also apply a display format to a string.
Syntax
|
1 |
String ( data {, format } ) |
|
Argument |
Description |
|---|---|
|
data |
The data you want returned as a string with the |
|
format (optional) |
A string of the display masks you want to use to The format string can consist of more |
Return value
String. Returns data in the specified format if it succeeds and the
empty string (“”) if the datatype of data does not match the type of
display mask specified or format is not a valid mask.
Usage
For date, DateTime, numeric, and time data, the system’s default
format is used for the returned string if you do not specify a format. For
numeric data, the default format is the [General] format.
For string data, a display format mask is required. (Otherwise, the
function would have nothing to do.)
The format can consist of one or more masks:
-
Formats for date, DateTime, string, and time data can include
one or two masks. The first mask is the format for the data; the
second mask is the format for a null value. -
Formats for numeric data can have up to four masks. A format
with a single mask handles both positive and negative data. If there
are additional masks, the first mask is for positive values, and the
additional masks are for negative, zero, and null values.
A format can include color specifications.
If the display format does not match the datatype, the attempt to
apply the mask produces unpredictable results.
For information on specifying display formats, see the section called “Defining display formats” in Users Guide.
When you use String to format a date and the month is displayed as
text (for example, when the display format includes “mmm”), the month is
in the language of the deployment files available when the application is
run. If you have installed localized files in the development environment
or on a user’s machine, then on that machine the month in the resulting
string will be in the language of the localized files.
For information about localized deployment files, see the section called “Internationalizing an Application” in Application Techniques.
Examples
This expression returns Jan 31, 2005:
|
1 |
String(2005-01-31, "mmm dd, yyyy") |
This expression returns Jan 31, 2005 6 hrs and 8 min:
|
1 |
String(2005-01-31 06:08:00, 'mmm dd, yyyy, h "hrs and" m "min"') |
This expression:
|
1 |
String(nbr, "0000;(000);****;empty") |
returns:
| 0123 if nbr is 123 |
| (123) if nbr is -123 |
| **** if nbr is 0 |
| empty if nbr is null |
This expression returns A-B-C:
|
1 |
String("ABC", "@-@-@") |
This expression returns A*B:
|
1 |
String("ABC", "@*@") |
This expression returns ABC:
|
1 |
String("ABC", "@@@") |
This expression returns a space:
|
1 |
String("ABC", " ") |
This expression returns 6 hrs and 8 min:
|
1 |
String(06:08:02,'h "hrs and" m "min"') |
This expression returns 08:06:04 pm:
|
1 |
String(20:06:04, "hh:mm:ss am/pm") |
This expression returns 8:06:04 am:
|
1 |
String(08:06:04, "h:mm:ss am/pm") |
This expression returns 6:11:25.300000:
|
1 |
String(6:11:25.300000, "h:mm:ss.ffffff") |
See also
String in the section called “String” in PowerScript Reference