12.5.16    format

Description:   Format a string

 

Syntax:         format formatString ?arg arg ...?

                   format "%type $position +form fieldwidth.precision bit conversion" variable1? variable2? …?

         

Argument:     string, a list of arguments

Returns:        formatted text string

 

See Also:       scan, append, lappend

 

Examples:     

set variable 255

SETVAL text50=[format "The number %d is equal to 0x%02X" $variable $variable]

#The number 255 is equal to 0xFF

set FmtPrf  [format "%8.2f" $Prf]        

This command generates a formatted string. FormatString indicates how to format the result, using % conversion format specifiers similar to the sprintf command in C.  The additional arguments, if any, provide values to be substituted into the result.

format Type specifiers:

%s     String

%d    Decimal integer

%f     Real number

%e    Real number in mantissa-exponent form

%x    Hexadecimal

%c     Character

The command scans formatString from left to right. Each character from format string is appended to a result string.  

If the character is a % then it is not copied to the result string. Instead, the characters following the % character are treated as a format specifier. The format specifier controls the conversion of the next successive arg to a particular format and the result is appended to the result string in place of the format specifier.

If there are multiple format specifiers in the format string, then each one controls the conversion of one additional arg. The format command must be given enough args to meet the needs of all of the format specifiers in formatString.

A format specifier may contain up to six different parts:

position, form flags,  minimum field width,  precision, bit length, and  conversion character. Any of these fields may be omitted except for the conversion character. The fields that are present must appear in the order given above.

Position

If the % is followed by a decimal number and a $, as in ‘%2$d’’, then the value to convert is not taken from the next sequential argument. Instead, it is taken from the argument indicated by the number, where 1 corresponds to the first arg. If the conversion specifier requires multiple arguments because of * characters in the specifier then successive arguments are used, starting with the argument given by the number. If there are any positional specifiers in formatString then all of the specifiers must be positional.

Form Flags

The second portion of a conversion specifier may contain any of the following flag characters, in any order:

 

-                  Specifies that the converted argument should be left justified in its field (numbers are normally right-justified with leading spaces if needed).

 

+                     Specifies that a number should always be printed with a sign, even if positive.

 

space           Specifies that a space should be added to the beginning of the number if the first character isn’t a sign.

 

0                      Specifies that the number should be padded on the left with zeroes instead of spaces.

#                     Requests an alternate output form. For o and O conversions it guarantees that the first digit is always 0. For x or X conversions, 0x or 0X (respectively) will be added to the beginning of the result unless it is zero. For all floating-point conversions (e, E, f, g, and G) it guarantees that the result always has a decimal point. For g and G conversions it specifies that trailing zeroes should not be removed.

 

minimum field width

The third portion of a conversion specifier is a number giving a minimum field width for this conversion. It is typically used to make columns line up in tabular printouts. If the converted argument contains fewer characters than the minimum field width then it will be padded so that it is as wide as the minimum field width.

Padding normally occurs by adding extra spaces on the left of the converted argument, but the 0 and - flags may be used to specify padding with zeroes on the left or with spaces on the right, respectively. If the minimum field width is specified as * rather than a number, then the next argument to the format command determines the minimum field width; it must be a numeric string.

 

Precision

The fourth portion of a conversion specifier is a precision, which consists of a period followed by a number. The number is used in different ways for different conversions. For e, E, and f conversions it specifies the number of digits to appear to the right of the decimal point. For g and G conversions it specifies the total number of digits to appear, including those on both sides of the decimal point (however, trailing zeroes after the decimal point will still be omitted unless the # flag has been specified). For integer conversions, it specifies a minimum number of digits to print (leading zeroes will be added if necessary). For s conversions it specifies the maximum number of characters to be printed; if the string is longer than this then the trailing characters will be dropped. If the precision is specified with * rather than a number then the next argument to the format command determines the precision; it must be a numeric string.

Bit Length

The fifth part of a conversion specifier is a bit length modifier, which must be h or l. If it is h it specifies that the numeric value should be truncated to a 16-bit value before converting. This option is rarely useful. The l modifier is ignored.

Conversion

The last thing in a conversion specifier is an alphabetic character that determines what kind of conversion to perform. The following conversion characters are currently supported:

 

%d                  Convert integer to signed decimal string.

 

%u                  Convert integer to unsigned decimal string.

 

%i                   Convert integer to signed decimal string; the integer may either be in decimal, in octal (with a leading 0) or in hexadecimal (with a leading 0x).

 

%o                  Convert integer to unsigned octal string.

 

%x or %X      Convert integer to unsigned hexadecimal string, using digits ‘‘0123456789abcdef’’ for x and ‘‘0123456789ABCDEF’’ for X).

 

%c                  Convert integer to the 8-bit character it represents.

 

%s                  No conversion; just insert string.

 

%f                   Convert floating-point number to signed decimal string of the form xx.yyy, where the number of y’s is determined by the precision (default: 6). If the precision is 0 then no decimal point is output.

 

%e or %E      Convert floating-point number to scientific notation in the form x.yyye±zz, where the number of y’s is determined by the precision (default: 6). If the precision is 0 then no decimal point is output. If the E form is used then E is printed instead of e.

 

%g or %G      If the exponent is less than -4 or greater than or equal to the precision, then convert floating point number as for %e or %E. Otherwise convert as for %f. Trailing zeroes and a trailing  decimal point are omitted.

 

%                    No conversion: just insert %.

 

For the numerical conversions the argument being converted must be an integer or floating-point string; format converts the argument to binary and then converts it back to a string according to the conversion specifier.

The return value from format is the formatted string.

 

DIFFERENCES FROM ANSI SPRINTF

The format command is the same as the ANSI C sprintf procedure except for the following differences:

[1] %p and %n specifiers are not currently supported.

[2] For %c conversions the argument must be a decimal string, which will then be converted to the corresponding character value.

[3] The l modifier is ignored; integer values are always converted as if there were no modifier present and real values are always converted as if the l modifier were present (i.e. type double is used for the internal representation). If the h modifier is specified then integer values are truncated to short before conversion.