Formatting Long to String (0003) without stripping leading zeros

Good Afternoon!

I'm working in Report Designer and have a situation where a field (Customer Order Position {tdsls401.corp} from Sales Order session tdsls4100m900) has a domain of "tdlino" (long) and display format of "ZZZZ9" with data as "0003" and need to keep the data format. Unfortunately, the output currently returns as "3". I did try with display format of "99999", but it added an extra zero to the string ("00003"). I changed the Print Expression to "str$({field})" to format the output as string, but it still strips off the leading zeros. I did try to change the domain to tctext with converting to string using "str$()", but no luck there either. I've tried a few other things (like sprintf$()), but not really having any luck, and was hoping that someone may have a recommendation.

Thank you in advance.

Best Regards,

--Ken

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Accepted answers

Ken Stulce

UPDATE:

I found a resolution to my formatting issue, but I had to do it in a weird way in the extension. I created two Calculated Fields "ext.corp" (domain: tclino - integer), ext.corp2 (domain: tcgen.dclr - string) and used the following function code for each. This seems to keep the string formatting and gets around the initial error message requiring domain tclino as an integer value. I've tried a variety of ways, without having both functions, and this is the only way that seems to work consistently.

<>*******************

function extern void ext.corp.calculate()
{
| hook code
select tdsls401.corp:ext.corp
from tdsls401
where tdsls401._index1 = {:tdsls401.orno,
:tdsls401.pono,
:tdsls401.sqnb}
as set with 1 rows
selectdo
ext.corp2 = str$(tdsls401.corp)
endselect
}

********************<>

<>*******************

function extern void ext.corp2.calculate()
{
| hook code

select tdsls401.corp
from tdsls401
where tdsls401._index1 = {:tdsls401.orno,
:tdsls401.pono,
:tdsls401.sqnb}
as set with 1 rows
selectdo
ext.corp2 = str$(tdsls401.corp)
endselect
}

********************<>

I was reminded a few weeks back of the Extension Debugger (Extensions>ACTIONS>Start Debugger) and it has helped me a lot with troubleshooting extensions, especially those associated with reports. I was recently able to setup another Calculated Field to retrieve the default Invoice-To Contact Email Address to print on the SO Ack report and the Debugger was the only way I could have ever gotten it to work. I discovered that some Calculated Field variables that I created were not being set appropriately and ended up having to use local variables instead for the hand-off, before the CF would work.

All comments

unknown

Try using the edit$() function with a string format of "ZZZZ9".

See below from Programming Guide:

edit$()

Syntax:

function string edit$  (void expression, string format)

Description

This formats an expression according to a specified format.

Typical usage of this function is (but is not restricted to) the computation of a formatted decimal representation of an integer or floating point input value.

Arguments

void

expression

The expression that must be formatted.

Implicit conversion of the input value from its original type to type string is performed. The resulting string value is formatted according to the format argument.

string

format

A string that defines the required format. The following formatting characters are available:

9	Use to reserve a position for a digit. Inserts a 0 if there is no significant digit in that position.
Z	Use to reserve a position for a digit. Inserts a space if there is no significant digit in that position. You can use this both before and after the decimal sign.
V	Use to indicate the position of the decimal sign. No decimal sign is displayed. To display a decimal sign, you must enter ‘D’, a period [.], or a comma [,] immediately after this character, depending on which decimal sign you wish to use.
D	Use to display the decimal sign as defined in the data dictionary.
T	Displays a thousand sign. The representation of the thousand sign is defined in the data dictionary.
-	If this is the first or last character in a format string, a negative value is prefixed or suffixed by a minus sign [-] and a positive value is prefixed or suffixed by a space. Minus signs in other positions have the same meaning as ‘Z’.
+	If this is the first or last character in a format string, a negative value is prefixed or suffixed by a minus sign [-] and a positive value is prefixed or suffixed by a plus sign [+]. Plus signs in other positions have the same meaning as ‘Z’.
*	If this is the first character in a format string, all spaces to the left of the most significant digit are filled with asterisks [*].

All characters other than those described above are copied directly to the output string. Periods [.] and commas [,] are exceptions. These are reserved for use as decimal signs and thousand signs.

If the format expression is enclosed by parentheses, these are displayed only if the result is negative.

Starting with TIV level 1640 the thousend separator and decimal sign can be overruled with the function set.numformat.symbols( string decimal(1), string grouping(1) ). The function reset.numformat.symbols() reverts to the normal behavior.

Return values

The function returns the formatted expression. If the specified expression does not fit in the format string, the result is filled with the overflow characters defined in the data dictionary.

Context

This function is implemented in the porting set and can be used in all script types.

Note

To include currency symbols or to use formats defined in the data dictionary, use sprintf$().

Examples

These examples assume that the decimal sign, thousand sign, and overflow character are defined in the data dictionary as a period [.], comma [,] and hash sign [#] respectively

Expression	Format	Result	Remarks
5286.45	9999VD99	5286.45
463.897	9999VD99	0463.89
34.65	9999VD99	0034.65
-3.1	9999VD99	#######	overflow
5286.45	ZZZZVD99	5286.45
463.897	ZZZZVD99	463.89
34.65	ZZZZVD99	34.65
-3.1	ZZZZVD99	-3.10
5286.45	----VD99	5286.45	no space for -
463.897	----VD99	463.89
34.65	----VD99	34.65
-3.1	----VD99	-3.10
5286.45	++++VD99	5286.45	no space for +
463.897	++++VD99	+463.89
34.65	++++VD99	+34.65
-3.1	++++VD99	-3.10
34.65	+ZZZVD99	+34.65
-3.1	+ZZZVD99	-3.10
5286.45	ZZZZVD99-	5286.45
-3.1	ZZZZVD99-	3.10-
5286.45	ZZZZVD99+	5286.45+
-3.1	ZZZZVD99+	3.10-
5286.45	*ZZZVD99	######	overflow
463.897	*ZZZVD99	463.89
34.65	*ZZZVD99	*34.65
-3.1	*ZZZVD99	*-3.10
5286.45	ZTZZZVD99	5,286.45
463.897	ZTZZZVD99	463.89
5286.45	ZDZZZVD99	5.286.45
463.8970	ZZZVD99ZZ	463.897
-3.1	(ZZZVD99)	(3.10)
3.1	(ZZZVD99)	3.10

unknown

Ken,

Try

string.set$("0",4-len(X))&str$(X)

Where X is the field you want.

Eyal

0911060553270289.pdf

unknown

sorry just noticed my mistake -

string.set$("0",4-len(str$(X)))&str$(X)

IDM Update M3 MT Meeting 6-17-20.mp4

Ken Stulce

Thank you for your reply. I did try the edit function, but no luck, unfortunately. Output was zero.

Ken Stulce

This makes sense with the padding of zeros. Good strategy. I've used it, similarly, before with check number padding and such. Unfortunately, the returned value was "3".

I think the issue has to do with the "Display Format" of "ZZZZ9" from the Domain "tclino". Its data type is an integer, so it makes sense why zeros were stripped off. Not sure why that data type was used versus a string based data type originally. I'm guessing the DF is the last thing that happens, so after we have the values as "0003", then value is converted back to a integer and strips off the zeros. I think zeros are not considered a "significant digit", so it's converted to a space.

Definition of "Z" from the edit$() function:

"""

Use to reserve a position for a digit. Inserts a space if there is no significant digit in that position. You can use this both before and after the decimal sign.

"""

I changed the domain to "tclnrf" (data type: Multibyte String) in Report Designer and then tried "string.set$()" as above in Print Expressions and it worked. The final conversion output just needed to be a string.

Edit$() may also work, though I think there would be an extra zero due to the display format needing 5 positions and the fields actual value had 4 positions.

EDIT - Below text from my last reply is incorrect. I was looking at the wrong field. Output was still just "3". Same issue though. Your suggestion works the best for appearance. In my Report Extension, I changed the Calculated Field I'm using from Domain "tclino" to "tclnrf" and I get an error when trying to print and open Report Designer. Unfortunately, it appears that the data for tdsls401.corp (Customer Order Position) is held as an integer, but the domain for the field, as shown in GTI, is "tcmcs.st16m", which is a Multibyte String. I changed my report extension field to use the same, but I get an error from RD regarding incompatible types for the field, expecting LONG|EXTERN but received STRING|EXTERN|TSS_STRING. This is kind of weird.

-------------------

After looking further, the ultimate fix was to change the domain to "tclnrf" and set print expression to "str$(X)", so final output is a string. This kept the zeros intact. I was afraid with the padding that if a customer decided to have "03" for the value in the field, the padding was holding 4 places, so I would have ended up with "0003".

------------------

Thank you for your suggestions. I'm definitely going to keep them in my toolbox.

Ken Stulce

UPDATE:

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