12.1 The Tab function

In Visual Basic, the "Tab" function is not a specific function by itself, but it is often used in the context of controlling the tab order of controls on a form. The tab order determines the order in which the focus moves from one control to another when the user presses the Tab key.

The syntax of a Tab function is Tab (n); x

The item x will be displayed at a position that is n spaces from the left border of the output form. There must be a semicolon in between Tab and the items you intend to display (VB will actually do it for you automatically).

Example 12.1

Private Sub Form_Activate
 Print "I"; Tab(5); "like"; Tab(10); "to"; Tab(15); "learn"; Tab(20);"VB"
 Print
 Print Tab(10); "I"; Tab(15); "like"; Tab(20); "to"; Tab(25); "learn"; Tab(20); "VB"
 Print Print Tab(15); "I"; Tab(20); "like"; Tab(25); "to"; Tab(30);"learn"; Tab(35); "VB"
End sub

12.2 The Space function

The Space function is very closely linked to the Tab function. However, there is a minor difference. While Tab (n) means the item is placed n spaces from the left border of the screen, the Space function specifies the number of spaces between two consecutive items. For example, the procedure

Example 12.2

Private Sub Form_Activate()
 Print "Visual"; Space(10);"Basic"
End Sub

Means that the words Visual and Basic will be separated by 10 spaces

12.3 The Format function

The Format function is a very powerful formatting function which can display the numeric values in various forms. There are two types of Format function, one of them is the built-in or predefined format while another one can be defined by the users.

(a) The syntax of the predefined Format function is

Format (n, “style argument”)

where n is a number and the list of style arguments is given in Table 12.1

Table 12.1: List of Style Arguments

Example 12.3

Private Sub Form_Activate()
 Print Format (8972.234, "General Number")
 Print Format (8972.2, "Fixed")
 Print Format (6648972.265, "Standard")
 Print Format (6648972.265, "Currency")
 Print Format (0.56324, "Percent")
End Sub

The syntax of the user-defined Format function is

Format (n, “user’s format”)

Although it is known as user-defined format, we still need to follows certain formatting styles. Examples of user-defined formatting style are listed in Table 12.2

Table 12.2: User-Defined Formatting Functions

Example 12.4

Private Sub Form_Activate()
 Print Format(781234.57,"0")
 Print Format(781234.57, "0.0")
 Print Format(781234.576,"0.00")
 Print Format(781234.576,"#,##0.00")
 Print Format(781234.576,"$#,##0.00")
 Print Format(0.576, "0%")
 Print Format(0.5768, "0.00%")
End Sub