Re: formatting numbers and dates

[David_Marston@xxxxxxxxx]

 >I'm brand new to XSL so forgive my ignorance, but I'm trying to use
>format-number() and can't seem to figure out the proper syntax.

If you're having problems with the function, the first step is to get
an up-to-date XSL processor. Only recently-issued ones, like Xalan
0.19.1 from Apache, have this function working well.

>Could someone show me how to convert the results of something
>simple like <xsl:value-of select="cost"/> so that it displays
>as currency, like $12.00.

format-number(cost,'###0.00') causes cost to be formatted with 1-4
places before the decimal point, and 2 places after. The # signals
zero suppression, while the 0 signals display of any digit. The spec
says (section 12.3, first paragraph) that the currency sign 0x00A4
must not be in the pattern string, but you could concatenate it in
front.

>Is there a similar function for converting a date the is in
>yyyymmdd format?

There is no function that is specifically aware of dates, but you
can use format-number to produce strings with the desired leading
zeroes and punctuation. To map the "mm" field to month names, you
could just use xsl:if.

David Marston
LotusXSL Team


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