Format Masks

Format masks objects are assigned to date and numeric fields and are used to define how data returned for that field is displayed. Date fields are required to have format masks.

Format masks have the following rules:

Must be created before assigning to date/numeric type fields.
Are case-sensitive. For instance, if you enter M, you indicate Month, and if you enter m you indicate minutes.
Cannot be modified once created, only deleted.
Cannot be deleted if assigned to fields.

Xephr expects dates returned from the datasource to be in the format defined in the datasource. The format mask is then applied to the date returned from the datasource.

Creating New Format Masks

In the Explorer Tree, select the Format Mask Information object.
There are options in creating a report template at this point.

Right-click on the Template Information object, and left click on the New Format Mask option.
Left-click on the [Format Mask] button in the Main Toolbar.
Left-click on the File Menu. Left-click on the New option. Left-click on the Format Mask option.
Press Alt+A on the keyboard.

The Creating Format Mask screen is displayed.
In the Format Mask property, enter the format mask that you are creating, using the rules described in the Format Mask Structure section.
In the Data Type property, select the data type to which this format mask will be applied. Choices are:
Numeric
Date (Only)
Date and Time
Click on the Create button to create the format mask.
Click on the [Save] button in the main toolbar to save the new format mask. Format masks cannot be modified once they have been created.

Format Mask Structure

Date Format Masks

Symbol	Meaning	Presentation	Example
G	Era Designator	Text	AD
y	Year	Number	1996
M	Month in Year	Text & Number	July & 07
d	Day in Month	Number	10
h	Hour in AM/PM (1-12)	Number	12
H	Hour in Day (0-23)	Number	0
m	Minute in Hour	Number	30
s	Second in Minute	Number	55
S	Millisecond	Number	978
E	Day in Week	Text	Tuesday
D	Day in Year	Number	189
F	Day of Week in Month	Number	2 (2nd Wed in July)
w	Week in Year	Number	27
W	Week in Month	Number	2
a	AM/PM Marker	Text	PM
k	Hour in Day (1-24)	Number	24
K	Hour in AM/PM (0-11)	Number	0
x	Time Zone	Text	Pacific Standard Time
'	Escape for Text	Delimiter
"	Single Quote	Literal	'

The count of pattern letters determine the format.

For Text types, if there are four or more pattern letters, use the full form. If there are less than four pattern letters, use the short or abbreviated form.

For Number types, the minimum number of digits should be entered. If a number is entered that is less than this number of digits, they will be padded with zeros to this amount. For y (Year), if the count of 'y' is 2, the Year will be truncated to 2 digits.

For Text & Number types, if there are three or more pattern letters, use text. If less than three pattern letters are entered, us the number.

Examples:

Format Pattern	Result
yyyy.MM.dd G 'at' hh:mm:ss z	1996.07.10 AD at 15:08:56 PDT
EEE, MMM d, ''yy	Wed, July 10, '96
h:mm a	12:08 PM
hh 'o''clock' a, zzzz	12 o'clock PM, Pacific Daylight Time
K:mm a, z	0:00 PM, PST
yyyyy.MMMMM.dd GGG hh:mm aaa	1996.July.10 AD 12:08 PM

Number Format Mask

Number format masks can contain a positive and negative mask, separated by a semi-colon. Zeros and # represent digits that must be present. Commas add thousand separators, while decimals show where the decimal goes. In the following example, negative values will be displayed surrounded by parentheses.

For example: #,##0.00;(#,##0.00). #,##0.00 is the positive display. (#,##0.00) is the negative display.

Percentage signs are handled slightly different than other punctuation marks in format masks. Adding a percent sign in a format mask indicates that you want the value multiplied by 100 and shown as a percentage. So, if the value in your field is .85 and the format mask ###.##% is applied to the field, the value will be displayed as 85%.

If you want the percent symbol displayed without the percentage formatting applied, then the percent sign needs to be escaped in the format mask using single quotes: ###.##'%'

Format Masks for Spreadsheets

Spreadsheets have a special set of format masks that are understood. The following format masks are good examples, but they can be expanded some (such as to more decimal places).

Date format masks are the same as those described in the Date Format masks section.

Format Pattern	Result
General	Formats exactly as it is in the datasource. 10.99 is formatted as 10.99. 13 is formatted as 13.
0	Rounds to the nearest whole number. 10.99 is formatted as 11. 12.3 is formatted as 12.
0.00	Formats with two decimal points, rounds to the nearest hundredth. 10.99 is formatted as 10.99. 12.309 is formatted as 12.31. 13 is formatted as 13.00
#,##0	Rounds to nearest whole number. Formats thousands with a comma. 10.99 is formatted as 11. 7058.25 is formatted as 7,058. 9258.6 is formatted as 9,259.
#,##0.00	Formats with two decimal points, rounds to the nearest hundredth. Formats thousands with a comma. 10.99 is formatted as 10.99. 7058.253 is formatted as 7,058.25. 9258.6 is formatted as 9,258.60.
($#,##0_);($#,##0)	Rounds to nearest whole number. Formats thousands with a comma. Negative numbers are placed in parentheses. The dollar sign ($) is placed before the value. 10.99 is formatted as $11. 7058.25 is formatted as $7,058. -9300.50 is formatted as ($9,301).
($#,##0_);[Red]($#,##0)	Rounds to nearest whole number. Formats thousands with a comma. Negative numbers are placed in parentheses and colored red. The dollar sign ($) is placed before the value. 10.99 is formatted as $11. 7058.25 is formatted as $7,058. -9300.50 is formatted as ($9,301).
($#,##0.00_);($#,##0.00)	Formats with two decimal points, rounds to the nearest hundredth. Negative numbers are placed in parentheses. The dollar sign ($) is placed before the value. 10.99 is formatted as $10.99. 7058.253 is formatted as $7,058.25. -9300.5 is formatted as ($9,300.50).
($#,##0.00_);[Red]($#,##0.00)	Formats with two decimal points, rounds to the nearest hundredth. Negative numbers are placed in parentheses and colored red. The dollar sign ($) is placed before the value. 10.99 is formatted as $10.99. 7058.253 is formatted as $7,058.25. -9300.5 is formatted as ($9,300.50).
0%	Converts the value to a percentage by multiplying it by 100. Rounds the result to the nearest whole number and adds a percentage sign (%) to the end. 10.99 formats as 1099%. 0.253 formats as 25%.
0.00%	Converts the value to a percentage by multiplying it by 100. Rounds the result to the nearest hundredth and adds a percentage sign (%) to the end. 10.99 formats as 1099.00%. 0.253 formats as 25.30%
0.00E+00	Formatted using scientific notation, with 2 digits in the exponent. A plus sign signifies a positive exponent while a minus sign signifies a negative exponent. 527748.95 is formatted as 053E+04. -9300.5 is formatted as -9,301E+00. 0.25697 formats as 2,570E-04
# ?/?	Converts value to a whole number and its fractional single digit remainder. 10.75 formats as 10 3/4. 90.22 formats as 90 2/9.
# ??/??	Converts value to a whole number and its fractional double digit remainder. 10.75 formats as 10 3/4. 90.22 formats as 90 19/20.

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