Determines how a numeric field抯 value is formatted for display in a data-aware control.
property DisplayFormat: String;
Description
Use the DisplayFormat property to override automatic formatting of a field for display purposes.
The value of DisplayFormat is a string that encodes the formatting of numeric data using the specifiers in the following table:
Specifier Represents
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 global variable. The default value of DecimalSeparator is specified in the Number Format of the Regional Settings 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 ThousandSeparator global variable. The default value of ThousandSeparator is specified in the Number Format of the Regional Settings 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.
The locations of the leftmost "0" before the decimal point in the format string and the rightmost "0" after the decimal point in the format string determine the range of digits that are always present in the output string.
The number being formatted is always rounded to as many decimal places as there are digit placeholders ("0" or "#") to the right of the decimal point. If the format string contains no decimal point, the value being formatted is rounded to the nearest whole number.
If the number being formatted has more digits to the left of the decimal separator than there are digit placeholders to the left of the "." character in the format string, the extra digits are output before the first digit placeholder.
The following table shows the effect of various format strings:
DisplayFormat Value Result Comment
#.## 12.2 12.2 Note extra digit to left of decimal still appears
#.00 2.5 2.50 Note extra zero: field will always show two decimal places
00.## .006 00.01 Note extra 0s to right of decimal point and rounding to two decimal places.
To allow different formats for positive, negative, and zero values, the format string can contain between one and three sections separated by semicolons.
One section: The format string applies to all values.
Two sections: The first section applies to positive values and zeros, and the second section applies to negative values.
Three sections: The first section applies to positive values, the second applies to negative values, and the third applies to zeros.
If the section for negative values or the section for zero values is empty, that is, if there is nothing between the semicolons that delimit the section, the section for positive values is used instead.
If the section for positive values is empty, or if the entire format string is empty, the value is formatted using general floating-point formatting with 15 significant digits. General floating-point formatting is also used if the value has more than 18 digits to the left of the decimal point and the format string does not specify scientific notation.
Note: DisplayFormat affects only the display of the field抯 data. It does not affect the validity of strings assigned to a numeric field using the AsString property.
