11. Report-Writer Expressions and Formats : Format Specifications : Blanking Format B
 
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Blanking Format B
The B format can be used with any type of data to print blanks in place of the value of the specified variable.
The syntax of the B format is:
bw
where w specifies the desired field width.
You can specify either an uppercase B or lowercase b (they are identical). Report-Writer ignores the value of the expression, and prints w spaces in the output instead.
You can use this format in conjunction with the .tformat statement (see .Tformat Statement--Change Format of Column Output Temporarily), which temporarily changes a column format, to suppress printing of unchanged values in break columns.