Formatting field values

You can format field values in record layouts or in the message Field Editor.

On the Formatting page, select Enable Formatting to apply formatting options to the field.

The options on the Configuration page vary according to the value of the Category field. See the Configuration page section in this topic. Options on the Alignment page are the same for all categories. See the Alignment page section in this topic.

For the Field Editor only (not for Record Layouts), you can preview the formatted value of the field in the Sample field. If the field value contains a tag, click Tag Value, enter a temporary value for any of the displayed user-defined tags, and click Refresh. The Sample field is updated. You cannot enter a temporary value for a system tag.

Configuration page

The following configuration options are available:

Table 1. Configuration page options by category

Category	Description
Date Time	The following options are available: Use Current® Date and Time If this option is selected, the Input Format field is completed automatically. The value to be formatted is the current date and time, and not the value in the message field. Input Format The date to be read can be either year first or month first. Output Format The date to be displayed can be either year first or month first.
String	The java.util.Formatter class is used to format the string. To not use the default string format, select Custom and provide a regular expression to be used while formatting the string.
Number	The following options are available: Decimal Places The number of decimal places in the formatted number. Use 1000 separator The separator to be used is locale-dependent. Custom To use specialized numerical format, such as parentheses for negative amounts, select Custom checkbox and replace the default format with the custom format. Click Summary for a short list of Decimal Format characters.
Currency	The following options are available: Decimal Places The number of decimal places in the formatted number. Symbol The currency symbol that must precede the formatted number. Custom To use a specialized numerical format, such as parentheses for negative amounts, select Custom checkbox and replace the default format with the custom format. Click Summary for a short list of Decimal Format characters. Symbol The currency symbol that must precede the formatted number.
Custom	The following options are available: Enable To specify a custom Java™ archive (.jar) file to use in formatting the field. Jar name The name of the archive file to use. You can use a tag as part of the pathname, such as %%PROJECT/ROOT%%. Class name Click Browse Classes to see the available classes in the archive. The classes that can be successfully used are the ones that extend the com.ghc.fieldactions.formatting.CustomFormat interface, which is available by compiling against the com.ghc.a3 plug-in archive. Parameters After you identify the Class name, you can edit the parameters that the custom format uses.

Alignment page

All the different field categories have the same options on the Alignment page:

Table 2. Alignment page options

Option	Header
Length	Choose one of the following: None No minimum length for the field. Custom Specify a minimum length in characters. If the content of the field is shorter than the specified minimum length, the length by character specified in the Character field is used to pad the content. If the Trim if too long option is selected, this value is also used as the maximum length for the field, and additional characters are discarded.
Justification	Choose the justification option for the field.
Character	Specify the character to be used for padding. Different characters are available for left and right padding, depending on the value of the Justification field. Both Left and Right fields contain a space by default, and you must delete the space before you can add a different character.
Trim if too long	If you select this option, the value of the Length option is used for both maximum and minimum length for the content of the field.