Software Customisation
Reference Manual
Summary of Objects, Members and Methods
:
Object Type Details
: FORMAT Object
FORMAT Object
The format object is used to format the output of real objects and especially real physical objects such as distances. It controls precision, units, conversions and unit qualifiers.
Format objects are also used to control conversions of strings to reals by providing guidance on dimensions and units. This occurs for text boxes in you interface, and also for real to string and string to real conversion methods.
Members
Name
Type
Purpose
CompSeparator
STRING | |
Separator used for multi-component data types such as POSITIONS.
Denominator
REAL 32
Largest denominator for Imperial fractions
Dimension
STRING ‘NONE’
L
L2
L3
Number is un-dimensioned
Number is a LENGTH
Number is an AREA
Number is a VOLUME
The TYPE string can be any existing values (L L2 L3 NONE) or any standard dimension (i.e. Measure), or any standard unit (which indirectly defines a dimension) either in full name (e.g. metre), or description or shortname (unitqualifier), or compound unit qualifier (e.g. lb/m4) form. No validation is actually performed until the format is used.
DP
REAL 2
Number of decimal places for decimal fractions
ENU
BOOLEAN TRUE
FALSE
Use ENU format when outputting POSITIONS
Use XYZ format when outputting POSITIONS
Fraction
BOOLEAN FALSE
TRUE
Fractional part output as decimal
Fractional part output as fraction
FtLabel
STRING |’|
Label used for feet
e.g. ' or FT or ft or feet
InchSeparator
STRING |.|
Separator between inches and fractions
Label
STRING |mm|
General distance label
e.g. mm or m or " or IN
The label (and similarly the foot label and the inch separator can be any string (within normal and reasonable unit limitations!). They are primarily supplied to allow physical values to be formatted in any reasonable way on reports, in files and in text fields etc. However it is often necessary for such values to be re-interpreted by the system (especially as they are validated after entry in the text field. In these case, if normal value and unit parsing fails to interpret the values then the string is reinterpreted with the Label, ftlabel and inch separators substituted by normal standard unit qualifiers and separators enabling the values and units to be successfully interpreted when correct and consistent with the format object.
If the label is set to UNITS then the standard unit qualifier will be output by the system, consistent with the dimension of the format.
OriginExp
BLOCK
||
|/*|
|CE|
With respect to World
With respect to World
With respect to Current Element
NextFormat
STRING
This specifies the name of another format object (looks for local and global variables) which will be considered for use as an alternative format when formatting a value to a string. If the current formats a value whose absolute value is less than one.
The nextFormat may also be delegate to its own NextFormat object and so a chain of formats can be constructed below the forma actually specified by the calling function. Each succeeding format should define a smaller unit for formatting to and hence will convert the quantity to a bigger value.
The format actually chosen will be that whose conversion unit produces a value that is greater than one.
All formats must be of the same consistent dimension (measure) and each successive format must define a smaller unit (for example - a value of 200 mm will be formatted in cm, if the chain of formats have units of km, m, cm, mm, micron.
One light year will be in km, one angstrom will be in microns.
PadFractions
BOOLEAN FALSE
TRUE
Do not pad Fractions
Pad Fractions with trailing spaces
TrailZeros
BOOLEAN
Trailing zeros are included up the required number of decimal places (as set by the DP member) if TrailZeros is unset, or if it is TRUE.
If TrailZeros is FALSE trailing zeros will be removed up to and including a trailing decimal point
Units
STRING MM
M
FINCH
INCH
Output number in millimetres
Output number in metres.
Output number in feet and inches
Output number in inches
The TYPE string can be any standard form of unit, or a compound unit. If dimension is unset the unit often defines what the unit is when the format is used. No validation is performed on this string until the format is used when the values will be converted to units specified.
Zeros
BOOLEAN
TRUE
FALSE
Leading zeroes are displayed for Imperial units.
Leading zeroes are not displayed for Imperial units
1974 to current year.
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