The Format$ Function – Part 4

(Custom String Formats)

Custom string formatting can be accomplished using specific characters recognized by the Format$ function, shown in the table below:

< Force lowercase	Display all characters in lowercase format.
> Force uppercase	Display all characters in uppercase format.
@ Character placeholder	Display a character or a space. If the string has a character in the position where the @ appears in the format string, display it; otherwise, display a space in that position. Placeholders are filled from right to left unless there is an ! character in the format string.
& Character placeholder	Display a character or nothing. If the string has a character in the position where the & appears, display it; otherwise, display nothing. Placeholders are filled from right to left unless there is an ! character in the format string.
! Force left to right fill of placeholders	The default is to fill from right to left.
\ (Display the next character in the format string)	Many characters in the format expression have a special meaning and can't be displayed as literal characters unless they are preceded by a backslash. The backslash itself isn't displayed. Using a backslash is the same as enclosing the next character in double quotation marks. To display a backslash, use two backslashes (\\). Examples of characters that can't be displayed as literal characters are the date- and time-formatting characters (a, c, d, h, m, n, p, q, s, t, w, y, and /:), the numeric-formatting characters (#, 0, %, E, e, comma, and period), and the string-formatting characters (@, &, <, >, and !).
"ABC" (Display the string inside the double quotation marks)	To include a string in format from within code, you must enclose the text in quotation marks (to embed a quotation mark within a quoted string, use to consecutive quotation marks for the embedded quotation mark).

To demonstrate custom string formats using combinations of the characters listed above, set up another "Try It" project, and place the following code in the cmdTryIt_Click event:

Private Sub cmdTryIt_Click()

    Dim strName    As String

    strName = InputBox("Please enter your name:")

    Print "Using '>':"; Tab(25); Format$(strName, ">")

    Print "Using '<':"; Tab(25); Format$(strName, "<")

    Print "Using '@':"; Tab(25); "Hello there, "; Format$(strName, "@@@@@@@@@@"); ". How are you?"

    Print "Using '&':"; Tab(25); "Hello there, "; Format$(strName, "&&&&&&&&&&"); ". How are you?"

    Print "Using '!@':"; Tab(25); "Hello there, "; Format$(strName, "!@@@@@@@@@@"); ". How are you?"

    Print "Using '!&':"; Tab(25); "Hello there, "; Format$(strName, "!&&&&&&&&&&"); ". How are you?"

    Print "Using '\':"; Tab(25); Format$(strName, "\H\e\l\l\o\,\ &&&&&&&&&&\.")

    Print "Using embedded quotes:"; Tab(25); Format$(strName, """Hello, ""&&&&&&&&&&"".""")

End Sub

Run the project and click the "Try It" button. When the input box appears, enter a name in mixed case  (in this example, Bruce was entered). The strings will be displayed as follows:

Download the VB project code for the example above here.