Lesson 15: The Format Function

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In Visual Basic 2008, we can write code to customize the look of the output so that it can be more easily understood by a user.

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

(i) The syntax of the predefined Format function is

Format (n,"style argument")

where n is the number to be displayed and style argument is the style of the displayed number .

Style arguments are listed in Table 15.1.

Table 15.1 List of Style Arguments

Style argument	Explanation
General Number	To display the number without having separators between thousands.
Fixed	To display the number without having separators between thousands and rounds it up to two decimal places.
Standard	To display the number with separators or separators between thousands and rounds it up to two decimal places.
Currency	To display the number with the dollar sign in front, has separators between thousands as well as rounding it up to two decimal places.
Percent	Converts the number to the percentage form and displays a % sign and rounds it up to two decimal places.

Example 15.1

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click, Button5.Click, Button4.Click, Button3.Click
Label1.Text = Format(8972.234, "General Number")
Label2.Text = Format(8972.2, "Fixed")
Label3.Text = Format(6648972.265, "Standard")
Label4.Text = Format(6648972.265, "Currency")
Label5.Text = Format(0.56324, "Percent")

The Output window is shown in Figure 15.1 below:

Figure 15.1

(ii) The syntax of the user-defined Format function is

Format (n, "user 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 15.2

Table 15.2: User-Defined format

Format	Description	Output
Format(781234.576,"0")	Rounds to whole number without separators between thousands	781235
Format(781234.576,"0.0")	Rounds to 1 decimal place without separators between thousands	781234.6
Format(781234.576,"0.00")	Rounds to 2 decimal place without separators between thousands	781234.58
Format(781234.576,"#,##0.00")	Rounds to 2 decimal place with separators between thousands	781,234.58
Format(781234.576,"$#,##0.00")	Displays dollar sign and Rounds to 2 decimal place with separators between thousands	$781,234.58
Format(0.576,"0%")	Converts to percentage form without decimal place	58%
Format(0.5768,"0%")	Converts to percentage form with two decimal places	57.68%

Example 15.2

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click, Button5.Click, Button4.Click, Button3.Click
Label1.Text = Format(8972.234, "0.0")
Label2.Text = Format(8972.2345, "0.00")
Label3.Text = Format(6648972.265, "#,##0.00")
Label4.Text = Format(6648972.265, "$#,##0.00")
Label5.Text = Format(0.56324, "0%")
End Sub

The Output window is shown in the Figure 15.2 below:

Figure 15.2

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