Skip to main content

Format String Editor

  • 2 minutes to read

The Format String Editor provides you with the capability to apply required formatting to report elements to display their incoming data. This formatting allows you to easily select one of the built-in formats or create your own. For instance, you can format a numeric value as currency, display a date/time value in one of the standard forms depending on culture, etc.

Use Standard Formats

The Format String Editor contains numerous built-in formatting presets grouped by categories.

WebDesigner_FormatStringEditor

All categories are displayed in the Category list on the left side. The Types list on the right side contains formats available within the selected category. The editor also allows you to see the preview of the selected format in the Preview section.

Use General Formats

In the General category, you can enter the Prefix and Suffix specifying custom text that will be added before and after the output value, respectively.

WebDesigner_FormatStringEditor_GeneralFormat

Create Custom Formats

To create a custom format item, enter the format string in the dedicated editor and click Add. The format will be added to the end of the Types list and automatically selected.

WebDesigner_FormatStringEditor_CustomFormat

You can then remove a custom format string by clicking the corresponding WebDesigner_FormatStringEditorCrossButton button.

You can use the IFormatStringStorage service to add a custom format item to the DateTime category at runtime.

Run the Format String Editor

You can invoke the Format String Editor to format values of a control’s bindable properties (not the control’s static content) and summary values.

A common task is to format an XRLabel‘s XRControl.Text property. To do this, expand the Actions or Data category, and in the Data Binding section, click the ellipsis button for the XRBinding.FormatString property.

WebDesigner_FormatStringForLabelText

Similarly, you can apply formatting to XRControl.NavigateUrl (for example, to add the https:// prefix to the link’s contents), XRControl.Tag and XRControl.Bookmark properties.