String Formats
String formats refer to the formatting of text. You can use the following symbols to specify a string format.
|
Symbol |
Description |
|
! |
Formatting must proceed from right to left |
|
< |
Following characters will be converted to lowercase |
|
> |
Following characters will be converted to uppercase |
|
@ |
Placeholder for a mandatory character |
|
& |
Placeholder for an optional character |
Normally, character string formatting proceeds by scanning the character string value and the format specification from left to right. However, if the format specification contains a “!” symbol, then scanning of both the character string value and the format specification proceeds from right to left.
Examples
|
Value |
Format |
Result |
|
forms |
> | FORMS |
| FormS | < | forms |
| forms | <@> | fORMS |
| forms | <@@> | foRMS |
| forms | !>@< | FORMs |
| forms | !>@<@@@> | FoRMS |
| forms | &&&&&“data” | formsdata |
| forms | @@@@@“data” | forms data |
The @ symbols are replaced by spaces when there is no corresponding character in the string value.