Format Property - Number and Currency Data Types

You can set the Format property to predefined number formats or custom number formats for the Number and Currency data types.

Setting

Predefined Formats

The following table shows the predefined Format property settings for numbers.

Setting	Description
General Number	(Default) Display the number as entered.
Currency	Use the thousand separator; follow the settings specified in the regional settings of Windows for negative amounts, decimal and currency symbols, and decimal places.
Euro	Use the euro symbol (), regardless of the currency symbol specified in the regional settings of Windows.
Fixed	Display at least one digit; follow the settings specified in the regional settings of Windows for negative amounts, decimal and currency symbols, and decimal places.
Standard	Use the thousand separator; follow the settings specified in the regional settings of Windows for negative amounts, decimal symbols, and decimal places.
Percent	Multiply the value by 100 and append a percent sign (%); follow the settings specified in the regional settings of Windows for negative amounts, decimal symbols, and decimal places.
Scientific	Use standard scientific notation.

Custom Formats

Custom number formats can have one to four sections with semicolons (;) as the list separator. Each section contains the format specification for a different type of number.

Section	Description
First	The format for positive numbers.
Second	The format for negative numbers.
Third	The format for zero values.
Fourth	The format for Null values.

For example, you could use the following custom Currency format:

$#,##0.00[Green];($#,##0.00)[Red];"Zero";"Null"

This number format contains four sections separated by semicolons and uses a different format for each section.

If you use multiple sections but don't specify a format for each section, entries for which there is no format will either display nothing or default to the formatting of the first section.

You can create custom number formats by using the following symbols.

Symbol	Description
. (period)	Decimal separator. Separators are set in the regional settings in Windows.
, (comma)	Thousand separator.
0	Digit placeholder. Display a digit or 0.
#	Digit placeholder. Display a digit or nothing.
$	Display the literal character "$".
%	Percentage. The value is multiplied by 100 and a percent sign is appended.
E– or e–	Scientific notation with a minus sign (–) next to negative exponents and nothing next to positive exponents. This symbol must be used with other symbols, as in 0.00E–00 or 0.00E00.
E+ or e+	Scientific notation with a minus sign (–) next to negative exponents and a plus sign (+) next to positive exponents. This symbol must be used with other symbols, as in 0.00E+00.

Remarks

You can use the DecimalPlaces property to override the default number of decimal places for the predefined format specified for the Format property.

The predefined currency and euro formats follow the settings in the regional settings of Windows. You can override these by entering your own currency format.

Examples

The following are examples of the predefined number formats.

Setting	Data	Display
General Number	3456.789 –3456.789 $213.21	3456.789 –3456.789 $213.21
Currency	3456.789 –3456.789	$3,456.79 ($3,456.79)
Fixed	3456.789 –3456.789 3.56645	3456.79 –3456.79 3.57
Standard	3456.789	3,456.79
Percent	3 0.45	300% 45%
Scientific	3456.789 –3456.789	3.46E+03 –3.46E+03

The following are examples of custom number formats.

Setting	Description
0;(0);;"Null"	Display positive values normally; display negative values in parentheses; display the word "Null" if the value is Null.
+0.0;–0.0;0.0	Display a plus (+) or minus (–) sign with positive or negative numbers; display 0.0 if the value is zero.