VAFormat

This property permits you to specify format strings for the field values displayed by the control.

See the Visual Basic Language Reference documentation of the Format function for a list of valid format strings and their meanings.

For VAList control in multi-column record list mode (VARecordList property is True), the VAFormat property can contain a list of formats (one for each field specified in the VAFieldName property of the control) separated by semicolons.

The VAFormat property exists to arrange your data using format strings similar to those used in Visual Basic. The common Visual Basic format strings (see Table 32) are predefined and there is also support for custom formats for dates and numbers. See the Visual Basic Language Reference for information on how these work.

Table 32

Common Visual Basic Format Strings

Format String

Description

(Empty String)

Default format. Displays numbers using General Number format, currency amounts, using the Currency format, dates and times using the using the General Date format, logical fields using True/False format.

General Number

Display number as is, with no thousand separators.

Currency

Display number with thousand separator, if appropriate; display two digits to the right of the decimal separator. Note that output is based on system locale settings.

Percent

Display number multiplied by 100 with a percent sign (%) appended to the right; always display two digits to the right of the decimal separator.

True/False

Display False if number is 0; otherwise, display True.

General Date

Display a date and/or time. For real numbers, display a date and time (for example, 4/3/93 05:34 PM); if there is no fractional part, display only a date (for example, 4/3/93); if there is no integer part, display time only (for example, 05:34 PM). Date display is determined by your system settings.

Long Date

Display a date according to your system’s long date format.

Short Date

Display a date using your system’s short date format.

Long Time

Display a time using your system’s long time format: includes hours, minutes, seconds.

Short Time

Display a time using the 24-hour format (for example, 17:45).

Custom numeric formats can be used similar to the formats provided by Visual Basic, but not all options are supported.

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Embedded string literals - + ( ) $ can be used. This allows one to format a phone number, i.e. (000)000-0000

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Other embedded strings using '\' or "" will not work.

•

Customized scientific notation will not work.

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'0' placeholders work correctly. Float values will display fractional digits unless explicitly restricted.

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'#' placeholders work for integers. Float values may be truncated unexpectedly and will display fractional digits unless restricted.

When using day-of-the-week displays, rounding errors can result in the wrong day being shown for times close to midnight.

Example

VAccess1.TableName = "Billing"

VAText1.FieldName = "Amount_Due"

VAText1.VAFormat = "Currency"

VAText2.FieldName = "Log"

VAText2.VAFormat = "mmm ddd yyyy"