DH_FloatFormat

Function:

Outputs a text string that can include one or more dynamically varying numeric values. Essentially, allows GUI Float parameter data to be integrated into text just as DH_Format does with voltage variables.

Left-hand side pins:

Format -  A text string that may contain place holders where the values of numeric  variables will be substituted into the string.

• The place holders also control the formatting of the numeric values, and are called format specifications.  (See Notes below.)

• Characters in the Format string other than format specifications are copied to Text Out without change.

Text Out - The output text string, with the current numeric value(s) from the Var input(s) substituted for the format specifications.

Var - A numeric value to be inserted into the string at the position marked by a format specification.

• This pin autoduplicates.

• Up to 10 variables can be used.

Right-hand side pin:

Text Out - The output text string, with the current numeric value(s) from the Var input(s) substituted for the format specifications.

Notes:

Format Specifications:

A format specification starts with a % and ends with a letter f.

Before getting into the details, here are 3 examples, showing the inputs and outputs on each pin. The format specifications are in light blue.

	Inputs		Output
	Format pin	Var pin(s)	Text Out pin
1	%.0f	126.999	127
2	Cutoff = %.1f Hz	2.551	Cutoff = 2.6 Hz
3	%.2f/%.2f	98.34 100.0	98.34/100.00

Notice that:

• Each format specification starts with a % and ends with a letter f.

• The format specifications get replaced by the Var values.

• The number of format specifications equals the number of Var pins.

• Any characters that aren't part of a format specification are simply copied from the Format pin to Text Out.

• The number of decimal places is specified by the number that follows the decimal point in the format specification.

• Format specifications are assigned to Var pins left to right, top down.

The general form of a format specification is:

Here are a couple of more advanced examples to illustrate:

Explanation:
4) min width of 6, left justified, rounded to nearest whole number
5) min width of 7, zero padded, rounded to 3 decimal places


A few more tricks:

Q1. What if you actually want to display a % sign?

A. Just use 2 of them: %%

For example:

	Inputs		Output
	Format pin	Var pin(s)	Text Out pin
6	Volume: %.1f%%	78.456	78.5%

Q2. Suppose I have a list of format strings in a DH_TextArray, and not all require the same number of variables. How can this be handled?

A. If there are fewer format specifications than Var pins, the format specs are assigned to the Var pins in the normal left to right, top down manner, and the
remaining pins are ignored.

Q3. What if I need to skip a pin in the above scenario? Suppose I have a format string with 2 format specs, but they need the values from the 1st and 3rd Var pins?

A. You can "hide" a Var pin by using a format spec with a special conversion character of 'h' in the place where that variable would normally be assigned. In example 7, %h is used to hide the 2nd pin.

Q. What if I have more format specs than Var pins?

A. You will get an error message at the Text Out pin.


The format specification conventions used here are adopted from the C programming language. Additional details about these format specifications and conversion characters can be found in any reference on C/C++ programming under the topic formatted printing, or the printf function. Because the SE inputs to the Var pins are Float type variables, only those conversion characters suitable for floats will produce meaningful results in a DH_FloatFormat Format string. (Note that the h conversion character is specific to the DH_FloatFormat and DH_Format modules, and is not a part of the C or C++ language or libraries.)
 

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