FORMAT Object

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 (that means, Measure), or any standard unit (which indirectly defines a dimension) either in full name (for example, meter), or description or shortname (unitqualifier), or compound unit qualifier (for example, 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

for example, ' or FT or ft or feet

InchSeparator

STRING |.|

Separator between inches and fractions

Label

STRING |mm|

General distance label

for example, 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 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 millimeters.

Output number in meters.

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.