MenuItemBinding.FormatString Property

Reference

Definition

Namespace:: System.Web.UI.WebControls

Assembly:: System.Web.dll

Important

Some information relates to prerelease product that may be substantially modified before it’s released. Microsoft makes no warranties, express or implied, with respect to the information provided here.

Gets or sets the string that specifies the display format for the text of a menu item to which the MenuItemBinding object is applied.

public:
 property System::String ^ FormatString { System::String ^ get(); void set(System::String ^ value); };

public string FormatString { get; set; }

member this.FormatString : string with get, set

Public Property FormatString As String

Property Value

String

A formatting string that specifies the display format for the text of a menu item to which the MenuItemBinding is applied. The default is an empty string (""), which indicates that this property is not set.

Examples

The following code example demonstrates how to use the FormatString property to format the text displayed in the menu items of a Menu control. For this example to work correctly, you must copy the sample XML data below to a file named Menu.xml.


<%@ page language="C#" %>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" >
  <head runat="server">
    <title>MenuItemBinding Example</title>
</head>
<body>
    <form id="form1" runat="server">

      <h3>MenuItemBinding Example</h3>

      <asp:menu id="NavigationMenu"
        datasourceid="MenuSource"
        runat="server">
        
        <DataBindings>
        
          <asp:menuitembinding datamember="MapHomeNode"
            formatstring="({0})" 
            textfield="Title"
            valuefield="Description"
            imageurlfield="ImageUrl"
            tooltipfield="ToolTip"
            target="_self" />
          <asp:menuitembinding datamember="MapNode" 
            depth="1"
            formatstring="[{0}]" 
            textfield="Title"
            valuefield="Description"
            imageurlfield="ImageUrl"
            tooltipfield="ToolTip"
            target="_blank"/>
          <asp:menuitembinding datamember="MapNode" 
            depth="2"
            formatstring="<{0}>" 
            textfield="Title"
            valuefield="Description"
            imageurlfield="ImageUrl"
            tooltipfield="ToolTip"
            target="_blank"/>
          
        </DataBindings>
        
      </asp:menu>

      <asp:xmldatasource id="MenuSource"
        datafile="Menu.xml"
        runat="server"/> 

    </form>
  </body>
</html>


<%@ page language="VB" %>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" >
  <head runat="server">
    <title>MenuItemBinding Example</title>
</head>
<body>
    <form id="form1" runat="server">

      <h3>MenuItemBinding Example</h3>

      <asp:menu id="NavigationMenu"
        datasourceid="MenuSource"
        runat="server">
        
        <DataBindings>
        
          <asp:menuitembinding datamember="MapHomeNode"
            formatstring="({0})" 
            textfield="Title"
            valuefield="Description"
            imageurlfield="ImageUrl"
            tooltipfield="ToolTip"
            target="_self" />
          <asp:menuitembinding datamember="MapNode" 
            depth="1"
            formatstring="[{0}]" 
            textfield="Title"
            valuefield="Description"
            imageurlfield="ImageUrl"
            tooltipfield="ToolTip"
            target="_blank"/>
          <asp:menuitembinding datamember="MapNode" 
            depth="2"
            formatstring="<{0}>" 
            textfield="Title"
            valuefield="Description"
            imageurlfield="ImageUrl"
            tooltipfield="ToolTip"
            target="_blank"/>
          
        </DataBindings>
        
      </asp:menu>

      <asp:xmldatasource id="MenuSource"
        datafile="Menu.xml"
        runat="server"/> 

    </form>
  </body>
</html>

The following code is sample site map data for the previous example.

<MapHomeNode ImageUrl="~\Images\Home.gif"

Title="Home"

Description="Root Page"

ToolTip="Home Page">

<MapNode ImageUrl="~\Images\Music.gif"

Title="Music"

Description="Music Category"

ToolTip="Music Page">

<MapNode ImageUrl="~\Images\Classical.gif"

Title="Classical"

Description="Classical Section"

ToolTip="Classical Page"/>

<MapNode ImageUrl="~\Images\Rock.gif"

Title="Rock"

Description="Rock Section"

ToolTip="Rock Page"/>

<MapNode ImageUrl="~\Images\Jazz.gif"

Title="Jazz"

Description="Jazz Section"

ToolTip="Jazz Page"/>

</MapNode>

<MapNode ImageUrl="~\Images\Movies.gif"

Title="Movies"

Description="Movies Category"

ToolTip="Movies Page">

<MapNode ImageUrl="~\Images\Action.gif"

Title="Action"

Description="Action Section"

ToolTip="Action Page"/>

<MapNode ImageUrl="~\Images\Drama.gif"

Title="Drama"

Description="Drama Section"

ToolTip="Drama Page"/>

<MapNode ImageUrl="~\Images\Musical.gif"

Title="Musical"

Description="Musical Section"

ToolTip="Musical Page"/>

</MapNode>

</MapHomeNode>

Remarks

The FormatString property is used to provide a custom format for a menu item's text. The format string can consist of a literal string, a placeholder, or both. The literal string is displayed verbatim, while the placeholder is replaced with the value that is bound to the menu item's text.

The placeholder is split into two parts, separated by a colon, in the form {A:Bxx}. For example, {0:F2} displays a fixed-point number with two decimal places.

Note

The placeholder string must be enclosed in braces to indicate that it is a placeholder and not a literal string. Any text outside the braces is displayed as literal text.

Keeping to the standard formatting string syntax, the value before the colon (A in the general example) specifies the parameter index in a zero-based list of parameters. Because only one value can be displayed in each menu item, the parameter index can be set only to 0.

The character after the colon (B in the general example) specifies the display format for the value. The following table lists the common formats.

Format character	Description
`C`	Displays numeric values in currency format.
`D`	Displays numeric values in decimal format.
`E`	Displays numeric values in scientific (exponential) format.
`F`	Displays numeric values in fixed format.
`G`	Displays numeric values in general format.
`N`	Displays numeric values in number format.
`X`	Displays numeric values in hexadecimal format.

Note

The format characters are not case-sensitive, except for X, which displays the hexadecimal characters in the case specified.

The value after the format character (xx in the general example) specifies the number of significant digits or decimal places to display.

For more information on formatting strings, see Formatting Types.

The value of this property, when set, can be saved automatically to a resource file by using a designer tool. For more information, see LocalizableAttribute and Globalization and Localization.

Applies to

Share via