.NET Format String 101

re: Format String 101

Barry Kelly — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 08:56:48 GMT

The best thing would be to try and get some improvement on MSDN. Every time I need to look up String.Format on MSDN, I waste about 15 minutes trying to find and figure out what I need.

Usually what I'm looking for is the equivalent of "%10.3f" or similar in C/C++, and I keep forgetting the .NET equivalent. It might be useful to include a translation from familiar (to us old fogeys) printf-style format strings to the .NET style.

At this stage, I've learned that it is {0,10:F3} (or whatever index), but it took pavlovian pain to remember.

Interesting Finds

Jason Haley — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 13:34:45 GMT

re: Format String 101

KathyKam — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 08:42:21 GMT

We're having a doc update pretty soon. I'm also working closely with our doc team to get some of the stuff I publish here (or some of the stuff the team publish at BCLWeblog)updated on MSDN as well. If you find a particular area confusing, let us know!

Format String 101

AntonioGanci — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 18:38:57 GMT

re: Format String 101

mikeb — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 21:26:51 GMT

I'm happy to find out that I'm not the only one who found it difficult to locate this information in MSDN.

I have no problems with the basics of .NET string formatting, but it has always been a pain to locate the custom format strings.

string.Format

Outta My Mind... — Fri, 14 Apr 2006 21:18:31 GMT

.NET Format String 101

-:[web caboodle]:- — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 05:37:28 GMT

re: .NET Format String 101

Johan Asp — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 01:06:40 GMT

very good post..

thank you!

re: .NET Format String 101

Brett — Wed, 03 May 2006 05:12:33 GMT

I agree with the above--very good post. Simple and to the point.

Brett

re: .NET Format String 101

Matt — Tue, 09 May 2006 21:53:19 GMT

I agree, this has been very helpful!

<adds to favorites>

Good job!

re: .NET Format String 101

gfh — Thu, 25 May 2006 14:04:02 GMT

company.CreditLimit.TOSTRING.format("{0:F2}",company.CreditLimit)

re: .NET Format String 101

Umair — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 17:10:30 GMT

Very good post. I agree that its extremely difficult to search on MSDN. MSDN should be upgraded to have good search feature.

re: .NET Format String 101

chrisslatt — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 17:58:10 GMT

I always fall back on this post as a reference:

http://blog.stevex.net/index.php/string-formatting-in-csharp/

Short, sweet and to the point.

re: .NET Format String 101

kjetil — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 14:08:07 GMT

Very helpful. The MSDN help is hard to locate and hard to use. Here I got the info I need with the exsamples it need. Simple and clean. You should copy this almost "as is" into the MSDN and leave what's there for "additional info".
Thanks!

.NET Format String 101

Clay Chang: blog — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 20:27:09 GMT

Glad to find that I am not the only one who wants a good reference on .NET string formatting.http://blogs.msdn.com/kathykam/archive/2006/03/29/564426.aspx-cla...

Benjamin Gan » Blog Archive » .NET Format String 101

Benjamin Gan » Blog Archive » .NET Format String 101 — Sat, 03 Jun 2006 09:31:41 GMT

PingBack from http://benjamingan.wordpress.com/2006/06/03/net-format-string-101-2/

re: .NET Format String 101

Wolfgang Kaisers — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 15:22:26 GMT

Excellent Information.

I was looking for a simple problem like "How do I add leading zeros to a String representing a Number so that it has a fixed length (e.g. 04 and 10)?"

The msdn sites are too complex in this topic and contain no useful Examples therefore I really appreciate this site.

re: .NET Format String 101

km_rau — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 17:33:58 GMT

I wish i had found this two or three hours before. It would have saved a good piece of time. Yet i'm still looking for the answer to a simple question: How can i format an integer to a string of a fixed length with leading spaces? I mean, how do i format the integer 26 to " 26" and 9 to " 9"?

re: .NET Format String 101

Kannan — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 08:14:48 GMT

This is a good one for the msdn wiki.

re: .NET Format String 101

KathyKam — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 03:10:00 GMT

Thank you so much for the great positive feedback! I have pinged our UE manager about the issues with string format (along with some of your feedback about MSDN). Hopefully, we can roll out a change in the next release.

re: .NET Format String 101

Salai — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 21:03:29 GMT

I need help on how do we format
in a text box
like putting commas to represent the currencyvalue
example

amount = 12,223,333
when ever we tried to change the display has to change to the normal value

re: .NET Format String 101

Anilk — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 16:13:29 GMT

Very good repository of various Formating options.

re: .NET Format String 101

Alan Howard — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 22:10:15 GMT

Very nice description.

Now, how do you format the equivalent of

int width = 7;
int value = 10;
printf ("%*d", width, value);

re: .NET Format String 101

Jay Gulati — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 17:06:31 GMT

I like the arrticle and is very helpful and I do need to goto this page all the time.
Here is another link which has date formats also included.
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/1ksz8yb7.aspx

re: .NET Format String 101

David — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 07:18:57 GMT

Very handy post with great explanations and examples. The fixed point formatting was just what I needed. Cheers for knowledge KK.

.NET Format String 102: DateTime Format String

Kathy Kam — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 04:18:50 GMT

"I see stuff like&nbsp;"zz" passed into DateTime.ToString(). What exactly does that do?" -- Very Confused...

.NET Format String 102: DateTime Format String

Kathy Kam — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 21:03:55 GMT

"I see stuff like "zz" passed into DateTime.ToString(). What exactly does that do?" -- Very Confused

re: .NET Format String 101

Ericson Mar — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 22:01:51 GMT

BUG... “{0:#0.00}” supposed to yeild 2 decimal places always right? This doesn’t work (at lease not with the decimal type). I tried multiple cases and it just doesn’t do anything to the format. It’s weird. I tried “{0:#,##0.00}” and it works for ONLY values > 1000.

re: .NET Format String 101

KathyKam — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 22:21:21 GMT

Hi Ericson Mar,

Using .NET framework 2.0

Console.WriteLine("{0:#0.00}", 1);

writes "1.00" for me.

Console.WriteLine("{0:#,##0.00}", 1);

writes "1.00" for me as well.

If you honestly think there is a bug, try submitting it here: http://connect.microsoft.com/

Thanks,

Kathy

re: .NET Format String 101

Ericson Mar — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 17:54:24 GMT

OK, I narrowed down the bug. Using .NET 1.1. When I do and excel export... Response.ContentType = "application/vnd.ms-excel"; ...the "{0:#0.00}", "{0:#,##0.00}" formatting only works for < 1000. Specifically, I used a Datagrid (not sure which part is buggy). But when I just display it on the page, the formatting works.

re: .NET Format String 101

KathyKam — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 00:09:02 GMT

Hi Ericson Mar,

It's best for you to submit your issues via http://connect.microsoft.com. Someone at Microsoft can help you narrow down your issue to see whether it is really a bug.

Thanks,

Kathy

re: .NET Format String 101

jsm — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 23:55:37 GMT

The link for DateTime format specifiers is incorrect. The correct link is (I think):

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/cpguide/html/cpconcustomdatetimeformatstrings.asp

re: .NET Format String 101

Stephan Samuel — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 20:46:58 GMT

@Alan Howard:

Now, how do you format the equivalent of

int width = 7;

int value = 10;

printf ("%*d", width, value);

Use:

myString = String.Format(String.Format("{{0:F{0}}", width), value);

Something similar to that, using the concept that the format string can be made from a formatted string.

Stephan

Scott’s Blog » String.Format is your friend

Scott’s Blog » String.Format is your friend — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 19:36:31 GMT

PingBack from http://scottlaw.knot.org/blog/?p=173

re: .NET Format String 101

harrra1 — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 20:50:40 GMT

Very good read. Brief, exact and to the point. YEAH!!!!

re: .NET Format String 101

rajesh — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 15:12:33 GMT

really good post................

re: .NET Format String 101

billys — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 22:41:40 GMT

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re: .NET Format String 101

Geoff — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 13:41:41 GMT

I think your description for the lines below might be incorrect??

String.Format("{0:N4}", pos); //"10"

String.Format("{0:N4}", neg); //"-10"

Did you mean output ?

// "10.0000"

// "-10.0000"

re: .NET Format String 101

Johan — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 19:34:14 GMT

I'm trying to change the decimal point that is used by Format() from "," (the default in my country) to ".".

How can I do this?

re: .NET Format String 101

kburn — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 14:05:29 GMT

nice article..

it helped me get out of troubles :)

thx

re: .NET Format String 101

Kimi Rakkionen — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 16:40:18 GMT

Pls help me in Beginners level

re: .NET Format String 101

Miek — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 09:21:38 GMT

Want to find something on MSDN? Use Google;)

Formatieren mit .NET

Thorsten's Blog — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 12:51:08 GMT

Eine Übersicht gibt es hier:http://blogs.msdn.com/kathykam/archive/2006/03/29/564426.aspxhttp://blogs.msdn.com/kathykam/archive/2006/09/29/.NET-Format-String-102_3A00_-DateTime-Format-String.aspx

re: .NET Format String 101

Phil — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 05:22:05 GMT

I always knew how to format a date that has a leading zero if necessary with the Microsoft.VisualBasic namespace, but I wanted to do it in .NET2. After a days of searching, I finally found how to do it by piecing together bits of a page here and there. But I asked myself, if I wanted to do percentage, or currency, how would I do those? I used Google to try to find out, but to no avail.

I then heard about DotNet Developer's Search Engine from Dan Appleman on DotNet Rocks. With that search engine, I found this web page. This article is awesome! For my vote, I'd like to see more articles on MSDN content like this.

re: .NET Format String 101

Phil — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 17:39:32 GMT

re: .NET Format String 101

Lew Grant — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 18:01:53 GMT

Thanks, this was very helpful, why can't MSDN include articles as good as this?

re: .NET Format String 101

miamidot — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 02:27:08 GMT

Where can I find the list of formatting rules? I don't wish to depend on a blog page to find out the formatting rules. I also don't wish to depend on examples which do not give me an exhaustive set of rules.

When I look in java or c++ println or printf manual pages, the link to the sprintf formatting characters and rules are part of the page.

Let's say b is a byte array of 3 elements {0xa7, 0x6f, 0xdd}. I would like to print b as "A7 6F DD ". So I attempted

String.Format((string)fmt, (byte[]) b);

What should variable fmt be:

fmt = "{0:X}" - no it didn't work

fmt = "{X}" - oops, formatting exception.

I cannot find any example showing how to format to output an array. Neither could I find the formatting rules to output an array.

When I read the java or c++ manual pages, the word "format" is a link to the sprintf rules. Why can't MSDN simply place a link under the word "format" to the formatting rules right in the manual page of String.Format? Why do I have to search high and low in an attempt to locate the formatting rules?

re: .NET Format String 101

mel — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 19:32:54 GMT

The msdn is really lacking these days. That is how I came to this post. I am starting to stay away from all links that I see pointing to it.

re: .NET Format String 101

Darren — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 06:05:02 GMT

Good article. Out of interest, does anyone know how to force a leading sign, eg. -10 would show '-10', 10 would show '+10'?

re: .NET Format String 101

CJLopez — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 20:21:47 GMT

Finally, someone who explains clearly how to use the format string.

I just lose like 2 hours trying to understand what is on the msdn about the format string. Yeah, they the examples, but here i can find even more specific info about the formats, thanks, i hope all the explanation of every aspect of msdn would be like you state this, xD

re: .NET Format String 101

Advait Supnekar — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 18:51:44 GMT

Very good article... resolved my queries!

Thanks

re: .NET Format String 101

CJLopez — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 20:24:03 GMT

Just a little question. I got a date on the format dd/mm/yyyy and i need it to be formated yyyymmdd so i just split the date using the slash carachter, and then i just readded to the original date variable but then, to reformat a 1 digit number, like march that is the third month, i wanted to be 03, i tried to format it with {0:D2} but i never came to get what I wanted, the code goes like this:

date() = act_date.ToString.Split("/")

act_date = date(2) + String.Format("{0:D2}", date(1)) + String.Format("{0:D2}", date(0))

The result always was yyyymd, does this kind of format only works on integer? if so, how can i make it work for strings?

re: .NET Format String 101

codputer — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 20:35:52 GMT

Editorial Comment - Are you kidding? I have been looking for something like this for ages! I've printed it off and given to everyone of my developers. It now hangs proudly in everyones cubicle@

re: .NET Format String 101

jeza — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 15:07:27 GMT

hot to use String.Format to show only specified length of chars?

String a = "abcdefghijk";

i wanna it so it shows only first 5 chars ("abcde")

Console.WriteLine(String.Format("{0,?:?}", a));

re: .NET Format String 101

Alister — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 20:16:03 GMT

To force output to have a leading sign

String.Format("+0;-0;0", 10)

will do it.

It goes "format for positive;format for negative; format for zero"

If you use this type of format the sign is suppressed so you have to explicitly put it in the formatting string

re: .NET Format String 101

Dan — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 23:21:42 GMT

Can I use string.format to take a value that is equal to A or I and replace the A with Active and I with Inactive?

re: .NET Format String 101

John — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 17:51:00 GMT

Thanks for this page. It looks like this page was offered as help, over a year ago, and MSDN still hasn't gotten it.

I found this page by searching google. Searching & looking through MSDN for a similar page, with this information that was sanely & logically laid out, was a huge waste of time.

re: .NET Format String 101

Hal — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 06:38:01 GMT

this is great, solve my problem

re: .NET Format String 101

Brian — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 05:27:27 GMT

Thanks - ever thought of re-writing the MS .net documentation (someone ought to!)?

You resolved my problem on how to format a float to a 2DP string in <20 seconds - Microsoft books and web seem to think formatting examples and info are a state secret - oh and take you round in circles :)

Brian

re: .NET Format String 101

Siddharth — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 18:13:59 GMT

Really a good post and helpful

re: .NET Format String 101

Symo — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 18:56:10 GMT

Very useful info - won't need my 'Formats you can never find.doc' I made out of frustration at the poor MSDN help on string formats any more :)

re: .NET Format String 101

Mark B — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:49:36 GMT

Thanks - you helped with my leading zeros issue - when trying to convert seconds into a string of HH:MM:SS.

Resulting formula thanks to you is

string.format("{0:00}:{1:00}:{2:00}",Hours,Minutes,RemainingSeconds)

re: .NET Format String 101

ThaiDev — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 12:02:41 GMT

Thanks, but i have some question

Can I trim data in place holder ?

ex : string.Format("{0}", "abc ")

re: .NET Format String 101

Mohamed Faramawi — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 04:53:53 GMT

Interesting post and excellent reference , it was always hard to me to remember formatting tricks, but good you gathered them out and put it here for us. Thanks!

re: .NET Format String 101

Gurjeet Saini — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 23:22:51 GMT

Very useful Custom formatting info of .NET Format String

re: .NET Format String 101

Sujay Ghosh — Mon, 26 May 2008 12:43:24 GMT

Hi Kathy ,

Nice compilation .

Can you please provide an example with IFormatProvider .

I am trying to show up the string in the InstalledCultureUi , but I dont see the string that way,.

For example :

US - English : 12.34

Norway - 12,34

Thanks ,

Sujay

re: .NET Format String 101

Hal Rottenberg — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 04:25:21 GMT

Wow, this is a very actively commented post. :) I just wanted to add my kudos. Your post is very well written. Unfortunately, I had to go through several others before finding yours! This topic is getting play for a whole new audience with the advent of PowerShell. Sysadmins like me aren't as familiar with MSDN as you devs, so a summary article like this one is definitely valuable.

-hal

Co-Host, PowerScripting Podcast (http://powerscripting.net)

re: .NET Format String 101

Chris — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 20:59:22 GMT

I would have never found this even with my familiarity using MSDN. I do a lot of work translating custom classes and XML to fixed length formats and this is by far the best tips I've read. Thanks!

ps you know your post rocks because 2 years later people are still commenting on it!

re: .NET Format String 101

John — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:23:55 GMT

Very informative post, unfortunately, I'm still looking for a solution to my problem... why oh why does it auto multiply %s by 100? Such a pain.

re: .NET Format String 101

Mauricio Sougarret — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 00:00:28 GMT

Excellent!!!!, Very informative... Why they don´t use something similar to your explanation on MSDN is a mystery to me!!!

re: .NET Format String 101

Dermanyon — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:23:24 GMT

Thank you very much. Thats examples help me too much.

re: .NET Format String 101

Joyce — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 20:29:21 GMT

I am trying to format the SSN, does this function work for that? I am trying to insert dashes (-)

re: .NET Format String 101

John — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 03:54:29 GMT

Absolutely brilliant.!!!

I really loathe trying to locate useful information on MSDN, and when it is found, a big percentage of the examples are only useful if you already know the subject and just want a represher.

I only go there if I can't find it on google, especially with the changes which basically direct us to sites which are more easily found on google.

Keep up the good work, thanks.!!

re: .NET Format String 101

Sid — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 20:04:22 GMT

This is way better than MSDN. Thank you for a good post. Saved me time and is written to the point.

Thanks,

Sid

re: .NET Format String 101

SomeGuy — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 22:42:50 GMT

I concur that this info was and still is wicked hard to locate on MSDN. Who writes the stuff on MSDN anyhow? Are the people who write it actually forced to eat their own dog food and use it once in awhile? Do they know how labyrinthian it is? I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that they are not developers and they have never had to actually search through/use their own documentation. If they are developers, I apologize and sell my MSFT stock.

re: .NET Format String 101

Patrick — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 02:20:57 GMT

Great Reference!!!

Thank you!

re: .NET Format String 101

Geoff — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 12:56:04 GMT

Again you have saved me the torment of wading through MSDN...

Thank you ever so much for a marvelous post!

re: .NET Format String 101

amirrez4 — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 11:23:08 GMT

thanks !! that helped me alot...

re: .NET Format String 101

DrDad — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 23:57:35 GMT

I have never found documentation on how to insert a literal curly bracket into a format string. It's done by doubling, a la:

Console.WriteLine("{{stuff and junk}} {0}", "hah");

produces

{stuff and junk} hah

And I add my voice to those who complain that MSDN documentation is really annoying