---
name: "Variant-Formats"
section: "3w"
platform: "linux"
package: "libwine-dev"
version: "1.0.1-3.1"
release: "Debian 6.0 (Squeeze)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/Variant-Formats"
---

# Variant-Formats(3w)

## NAME

**Variant Formats**

## NOTES

When formatting a variant a variety of format strings may be used to generate different kinds of formatted output. A format string consists of either a named format, or a user-defined format.

The following named formats are defined: \
\
  Name           Description\
\
  \----           -----------\
\
  General Date   Display Date, and time for non-integer values\
\
  Short Date     Short date format as defined by locale settings\
\
  Medium Date    Medium date format as defined by locale settings\
\
  Long Date      Long date format as defined by locale settings\
\
  Short Time     Short Time format as defined by locale settings\
\
  Medium Time    Medium time format as defined by locale settings\
\
  Long Time      Long time format as defined by locale settings\
\
  True/False     Localised text of "True" or "False"\
\
  Yes/No         Localised text of "Yes" or "No"\
\
  On/Off         Localised text of "On" or "Off"\
\
  General Number No thousands separator. No decimal points for integers\
\
  Currency       General currency format using localised characters\
\
  Fixed          At least one whole and two fractional digits\
\
  Standard       Same as 'Fixed', but including decimal separators\
\
  Percent        Multiply by 100 and display a trailing '%' character\
\
  Scientific     Display with exponent.

User-defined formats consist of a combination of tokens and literal characters. Literal characters are copied unmodified to the formatted output at the position they occupy in the format string. Any character that is not recognised as a token is treated as a literal. A literal can also be specified by preceding it with a backslash character (e.g. **"t\\**

**A user-defined format can have up to 4** sections, depending on the type of format. The following table lists sections and their meaning: \
\
  Format Type  Sections Meaning\
\
  \-----------  -------- -------\
\
  Number       1        Use the same format for all numbers\
\
  Number       2        Use format 1 for positive and 2 for negative numbers\
\
  Number       3        Use format 1 for positive, 2 for zero, and 3\
\
                        for negative numbers.\
\
  Number       4        Use format 1 for positive, 2 for zero, 3 for\
\
                        negative, and 4 for null numbers.\
\
  String       1        Use the same format for all strings\
\
  String       2        Use format 2 for null and empty strings, otherwise\
\
                        use format 1.\
\
  Date         1        Use the same format for all dates.

The formatting tokens fall into several categories depending on the type of formatted output. For more information on each type, see VarFormat-Dates(), **[VarFormat-Strings(3w)](/VarFormat-Strings/3w.md)** and **VarFormat-Numbers(3w)**.

## SEE ALSO

VarTokenizeFormatString(), **VarFormatFromTokens(3w)**, **[VarFormat(3w)](/VarFormat/3w.md)**, VarFormatDateTime(), **[VarFormatNumber(3w)](/VarFormatNumber/3w.md)**, **[VarFormatCurrency(3w)](/VarFormatCurrency/3w.md)**.