When exporting attribute values using ^value()^, intuition may not match output. A String is likely unchanged, but what about a Boolean, or a Date? This note aims to clarify those possible discrepancies.
Single-value attributes
- String (and string-based: Action, Color, File, Font, URL). There are no effects here. White space in the source value is retained in the output value.
- Number. These are exported as seen. This includes numbers that Tinderbox has stored in exponential notation (see here). The Number.format() operator can be useful in setting maximum decimal places or padding characters so all items values export with the same number of characters.
- Boolean. These export in the form
trueorfalse. - Date. Dates export in ISO 8601 format (see here), so it is likely a Date.format() transform will be desired.
- Interval. Intervals are exported as a string, the same as seen when editing an interval's value.
Multi-value attributes
- Dictionary, List and Set. These are exported as the literal strings storing the attribute value. Any white space in and between terms is preserved. It is most likely a list .format() transform will need to be applied.