Display Formats
The display format of a value affects its appearance. It is controlled by a two-character format specification, e.g., F4 or E7. The first character can be A, N, F, E, G, S, T, D, or d, which have the following meaning.
A - Auto Format.
Auto format is the default. In this case EES will internally choose a format for displaying the value. When Auto Format is used, the second character in the format specification is ignored.
F - Fixed Decimal Format
Fixed Decimal format displays the value with a specified number of digits to the right of the decimal separator. The number of digits is indicated by the second character. It can be an integer between 0 and 9 or the letter 'M'. If 'M' is selected, the maximum number of digits will be used.
E - Exponential Format
Exponential format displays a number so that it has one significant figure to the left of the decimal separator and an exponent following letter 'E' at the end of the display. The exponent indicates the power of 10 that the value to the left of 'E' must be multiplied by. For example 5.123E2 is interpreted as 512.3. The second character in the format specification controls the number of digits to the right of the decimal separator. It can be an integer between 0 and 9 or the letter 'M'. If 'M' is selected, the maximum number of digits will be used.
G - Engineering Format
Engineering format is similar to exponential format in that the value is shown with a number followed by an exponent. However, in engineering format, that exponent is always an integer factor of 3. As for E format, the number of significant figures indicated by the second character with a number (0 to 9) or letter 'M'. If 'M' is selected, the maximum number of digits will be used.
N - Specific number of significant figures
This format option will display numerical values with the number of significant figures indicated by the second character. The number of significant figures can be an integer between 0 and 9 or the letter 'M' which indicates the maximum number of significant figures. If, for example, the value is 123.4567, this value will appear as 123 when displayed with format N3 and 123.5 when displayed with format N 4. Values greater than 1E6 or less than 1E-6 are displayed in E format with the specified number of significant figures.
S - String Format
String format is used for string variables or for text in a Lookup table.
T - Time Format
Time format allows time to be displayed in various ways depending on the second character in the format specification, which can be F, '0', 'M' or 'S'. '0' indicates the default format specified in the Windows operating system. 'M' indicates that only hours and minutes will be display while 'S' indicates that the display should show hours, minutes and seconds.
D - Date Format
Date format is appropriate for values that are to be interpreted as dates. The second character in the format specification controls the format of the display.
d - DateTime Format
DateTime format is appropriate for values that are to be interpreted as date and time information. The second character in the format specification controls the format of the date. Time is displayed as hh:mm:ss.
Note 1:
The decimal separator may be a decimal point or a comma, depending on the location settings made in the Windows operating system. Alternatively, the $Keyboard directive allows the decimal separator to be specified.
Note 2:
Values may be optionally display with a separator for the thousands field. The separator is a comma for the US convention or a decimal point for the EU convention. The thousands separator option is controlled by a check box in the Display tab of the Preferences dialog.