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The following is a list of the different alphanumeric format codes and what they accomplish for each output type.
Examples:
Format String
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123456.78
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-123.0
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0.5
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0.0
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#,##0.00
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123,456.78
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-123.00
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0.50
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0.00
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#.#
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123456.8
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-123
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0.5
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0
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$,0.00
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$123,456.78
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$-123.00
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$0.50
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$0.00
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0.00;(0.00);'-'
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123456.78
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(123.00)
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0.50
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-----
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Specifier
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Represents
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0
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Digit place holder. If value being formatted has a digit where the '0' appears, then the digit is copied to the output string. Otherwise, a '0' is in the output string.
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#
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Digit place holder. If value being formatted has a digit where the '#' appears, then the digit is copied to the output string. Otherwise, nothing appears in that position.
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.
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Decimal point. The first '.' character in the format string determines the location of the decimal separator in the formatted value. The actual character used as a the decimal separator in the output string is determined by the Number Format of the International section in the Windows Control Panel.
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,
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Thousand separator. If format string contains a ',' characters, the output will have thousand separators inserted between each group of three digits to left of decimal point. The actual character used as a thousand separator in the output is determined by the Number Format of the International section in the Windows Control Panel.
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E+
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Scientific notation. If any of the strings 'E+', 'E-', 'e+', or 'e-' are contained in the format string, the number is formatted using scientific notation. A group of up to four '0' characters can immediately follow the 'E+', 'E-', 'e+', or 'e-' to determine the minimum number of digits in the exponent. The 'E+' and 'e+' formats cause a plus sign to be output for positive exponents and a minus sign to be output for negative exponents. The 'E-' and 'e-' formats output a sign character only for negative exponents.
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'xx'/"xx"
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Characters enclosed in single or double quotes are output as-is, and do not affect formatting.
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;
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Separates sections for positive, negative, and zero numbers in the format string.
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The locations of the leftmost '0' before the decimal point in the format string and the rightmost '0' after the decimal point in the format string determine the range of digits that are always present in the output string.
The number being formatted is always rounded to as many decimal places as there are digit place holders ('0' or '#') to the right of the decimal point. If the format string contains no decimal point, the value being formatted is rounded to the nearest whole number.
If the number being formatted has more digits to the left of the decimal separator than there are digit place holders to the left of the '.' character in the format string, the extra digits are output before the first digit placeholder.
To allow different formats for positive, negative, and zero values, the format string can contain between one and three sections separated by semicolons.
One section:
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The format string applies to all values.
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Two sections:
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The first section applies to positive values and zeros, and the second section applies to negative values.
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Three sections:
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The first section applies to positive values, the second applies to negative values, and the third applies to zeros.
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If the section for negative values or the section for zero values is empty, that is if there is nothing between the semicolons that delimit the section, the section for positive values is used instead.
If the section for positive values is empty, or if the entire format string is empty, the value is formatted using general floating-point formatting with 15 significant digits.
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