Lesson 12 : The Formatting Functions

12.1 The Tab function

The syntax of a Tab function is Tab (n); x

The item x will be displayed at a position that is n spaces from the left border of the output form. There must be a semicolon in between Tab and the items you intend to display (VB will actually do it for you automatically).

Example 12.1

Private Sub Form_Activate
Print "I"; Tab(5); "like"; Tab(10); "to"; Tab(15); "learn"; Tab(20);"VB"
Print
Print Tab(10); "I"; Tab(15); "like"; Tab(20); "to"; Tab(25); "learn"; Tab(20); "VB"
Print Print Tab(15); "I"; Tab(20); "like"; Tab(25); "to"; Tab(30);"learn"; Tab(35); "VB"
End sub

Figure 12.1: Output of Example 12.1

12.2 The Space function

The Space function is very closely linked to the Tab function. However, there is a minor difference. While Tab (n) means the item is placed n spaces from the left border of the screen, the Space function specifies the number of spaces between two consecutive items. For example, the procedure

Example 12.2

Private Sub Form_Activate()
Print "Visual"; Space(10);"Basic"
End Sub

Means that the words Visual and Basic will be separated by 10 spaces

12.3 The Format function

The Format function is a very powerful formatting function which can display the numeric values in various forms. There are two types of Format function, one of them is the built-in or predefined format while another one can be defined by the users.

(a) The syntax of the predefined Format function is

Format (n, “style argument”)

where n is a number and the list of style arguments is given in Table 12.1

Table 12.1: List of Style Arguments

Example 12.3

Private Sub Form_Activate()
Print Format (8972.234, "General Number")
Print Format (8972.2, "Fixed")
Print Format (6648972.265, "Standard")
Print Format (6648972.265, "Currency")
Print Format (0.56324, "Percent")
End Sub

Figure 12.2: Output of Example 12.3

Format (n, “user’s format”)

Private Sub Form_Activate()
Print Format(781234.57,"0")
Print Format(781234.57, "0.0")
Print Format(781234.576,"0.00")
Print Format(781234.576,"#,##0.00")
Print Format(781234.576,"$#,##0.00")
Print Format(0.576, "0%")
Print Format(0.5768, "0.00%")
End Sub