Format function
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English (en) │
suomi (fi) │
The format function formats a series of values into a string. The format function is found in the unit SysUtils.
For an in-depth explanation see the sysutils.format
on line documentation.
Syntax
Format is overloaded with two ways to call it:
function Format( const Fmt: String; const Args: array of Const) : String;
function Format( const Fmt: String; const Args: array of Const; const FormatSettings: TFormatSettings) : String;
The Fmt String argument contains format specifiers or placeholders (e.g. %d) which correspond to and are replaced in the result string by values from the Args array. An array of const can hold a variable amount of values of different types, with the applicable types for the Format function being the variations of the Real, Integer, Pointer and String types. TFormatSettings is a record which holds information related to desired formatting of number, time, date and currency values.
The formatting rule for each given format specifier is:
% [ArgumentIndex:] ['-'] [width] [. precision] ArgumentType
d | Decimal (integer) |
e | Scientific |
f | Fixed |
g | General |
m | Money |
n | Number (floating) |
p | Pointer |
s | String |
u | Unsigned decimal |
x | Hexadecimal |
Integer formatting
%d | Will print the integer as it is. |
%8d | Will print the integer as it is. If the number of digits is less than 8, the output will be padded on the left. |
%-8d | Will print the integer as it is. If the number of digits is less than 8, the output will be padded on the right. |
%.8d | Will print the integer as it is. If the number of digits is less than 8, the output will be padded on the left with zeroes. |
String formatting
%s | Will print the string as it is. |
%8s | Will print the string as it is. If the string has less than 8 characters, the output will be space-padded on the left (right-justified). |
%-8s | Will print the string as it is. If the string has less than 8 characters, the output will be space-padded on the right (left-justified). |
Example of usage
procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
var
title, title2,
underline,
line, row1, row2, row3,
fmt : string;
i : integer;
begin
fmt := '%-12s';
title := format(fmt,['Column 1']) + format(fmt,['Column 2']) ;
for i := 1 to 12 do underline := underline + '-';
underline := underline + underline ;
fmt := '%-12d';
line := format(fmt,[15]) + format(fmt,[8]) ;
fmt := '%12s';
title2 := format(fmt,['Column 1']) + format(fmt,['Column 2']) ;
fmt := '%12d';
row1 := format(fmt,[15]) + format(fmt,[8]) ;
row2 := format(fmt,[1005]) + format(fmt,[809]) ;
fmt := '%12.5d';
row3 := format(fmt,[1005]) + format(fmt,[809]) ;
Memo1.Lines.Add( title );
Memo1.Lines.Add( underline );
Memo1.Lines.Add( line );
Memo1.Lines.Add( '' );
Memo1.Lines.Add( title2 );
Memo1.Lines.Add( underline );
Memo1.Lines.Add( row1 );
Memo1.Lines.Add( row2 );
Memo1.Lines.Add( row3 );
end;
The above statements will create a set of strings that look like:
Column 1 Column 2 ------------------------ 15 8
Column 1 Column 2 ------------------------ 15 8 1005 809 01005 00809
See also
- Format
- FloatToStrF
- FormatFloat
- IntToHex - Convert an integer into a hexadecimal string.