Re: [xsl] Re: using format-number() for aligned text output

["G. Ken Holman" <gkholman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 01/03/28 17:42 +0100, Jeni Tennison wrote:
> > I was anticipating format-number(price,'####0.00') to always produce
> > a string of 8 characters in length, yet both processors I have (XT
> > and Saxon) are Java based and are using the Java library which is
> > known to have other problems for this function.
>
> I thought that, since the format-number() function is specifically
> based on Java's DecimalFormat class, that using the Java library would
> be *more* reliable than copying the functionality in another language?

That would require non-Java processors to implement bug-emulation mode as I 
feel quite certain that the Java library failure to recognize the negative 
pattern grammar of the format pattern syntax wouldn't want to be copied in 
an implementation:

Consider:

  format-number(-12345, '#,###.00;(#)')

The above produces "(12,345)" in Java-based processors and (I'm told) 
"(12345)" in C++-based processors.  I believe the C++-based processors are 
correct.  For all of my tests of negative number syntax in the grammar, 
they are *all* being ignored and supplanted by the positive number syntax 
in Java-based processors.

Where does one draw the line between empirical evidence and functional 
definition?  This question is being raised in the OASIS XSLT/XPath 
conformance committee.

> > Any alternative interpretations out there for the specification
> > wording of: "digit specifies the character used for a digit in the
> > format pattern; the default value is the number sign character (#)"?
> > Would anyone else expect the "#" to produce a space if no digit is
> > there? If that isn't the behaviour, then what is the utility of the
> > "#"?
>
> In the format pattern, the # stands for an optional digit and the 0
> stands for a required digit.  So:
>
>   format-number(12345, '#,##0.00') => '12,345.00'
>   format-number(1.5,   '#,##0.00') => '1.50'
>   format-number(0.543, '#,##0.00') => '0.54'
>   format-number(12345, '#,###.##') => '12,345'
>   format-number(1.5,   '#,###.##') => '1.5'
>   format-number(0.543, '#,###.##') => '.54'

Personally, I would have expected a space where the comma is so that my 
format string dictated the final result length for any number of less than 
or equal the digits of the uses of the octothorpe character.  I 
acknowledge, though, the '#' would be the only facility to specify the 
grouping.

Thanks, Jeni!

..................... Ken


--
G. Ken Holman                      mailto:gkholman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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