format(data, formatString)

The operator format() converts various Tinderbox objects to strings. In quoted (") string arguments a \" is converted into a quotation mark (a.k.a. double quote), \n to a carriage return and \t to a tab.

format(what,format_string)

The argument what is usually an attribute reference or expression.

The meaning of format_string depends on the type of object represented by what. Tinderbox data types Date, Set and Number are handled using different sets of arguments as described below.

If what is a date, the format string is the same as the format used by Tinderbox's date export codes.

For example:

format($Created,"L") 

gets the note's creation date and formats it as a "long local date" such as "Sunday, 23 March, 2007".

If what is a Set, the format string is the delimiter used to separate set elements:

format(what,delimiter_string)

For example

format($KeyAttributes,",") 

converts key attributes to a comma-separated list. Optionally, you may supply five arguments to format the set as an HTML list:

format(what,list-prefix,item-prefix,item-suffix,list-suffix)

For example

format($Classes,"<ul>","<li>","</li>","</ul>") 

will return HTML code for a bulleted list with each set member marked up as a list item. Note that the tags must be in double quotes.

To make this easier to use in a code export context, you might pass the output of format into another attribute and call the latter within the template with a ^get()^ code.

If what is a number, then the arguments are numeric and interpreted as follows:

format(what,precision[, width])

The precision argument controls the number of decimal places returned. The optional width argument allows the returned value to be a string left padded with spaces - e.g. to return a string with the same number of characters as submitted.

For example, if $MyNum is 3.1415927, then

format($MyNum,2,7) is " 3.14"

format($MyNum,2) is 3.14

format*$MyNum,0) is 3

If what is a color, format strings are ignored:

format(color)

The operator returns the color in hex form, e.g. "#ff00ff".

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