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From: jrl@images1.Waterloo.NCR.COM (john Latala)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.handhelds
Subject: formatted output
Message-ID: <735@ncrwat.Waterloo.NCR.COM>
Date: 11 Jun 90 17:24:27 GMT
Sender: news@ncrwat.Waterloo.NCR.COM
Reply-To: john.Latala@Waterloo.NCR.COM
Organization: NCR Canada Ltd, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
Lines: 46
Keywords:

One feature that I wish my HP28s did have was a way to do formatted
output. It's a real pain when you're trying to display some numbers in a
'nice' way.

It can be done eventually, with enough pushing and popping and setting
the decimal point to the right number of places and a couple of ->STR
and ->STR operations. But it does get a little bit cumbersome.

How about a format command that takes a number and a format string from
the stack and returns a string which is that number in that format. An
unformat command that does the reverse would be nice, but not really
needed.

Initially I was thinking of something like the BASIC 'USING' clause:

	"#####.##" 123.456 FORMAT

would return:

	"  123.47"

The order of the arguments for the FORMAT command could even be
optional, as long as it's a number and a string the usage can be figured
out.

It would be nice if it worked for any type (except string):

	(123.45, -234.45) "(####.##, ####.##)" FORMAT

would return:

	"( 123.34, -234.45)"

The format control string should have features to let it handle the
usual 'formatting' features:

	- leading blank, "0" or any other character fill
	- leading zero suppression
	- variable width output (normal number to string with STD fmt)
	- various bases
	- floating minus sign
	- floating dollar sign

are just a quick list of possible nice features.
--
john.Latala@Waterloo.NCR.COM