FormatNumber Function (Visual Basic)

Article
11/18/2006

Returns an expression formatted as a number.

Function FormatNumber(
   ByVal Expression As Object,
   Optional ByVal NumDigitsAfterDecimal As Integer = -1,
   Optional ByVal IncludeLeadingDigit As TriState = TriState.UseDefault,
   Optional ByVal UseParensForNegativeNumbers As TriState = TriState.UseDefault,
   Optional ByVal GroupDigits As TriState = TriState.UseDefault
) As String

Parameters

Expression
Required. Expression to be formatted.

NumDigitsAfterDecimal
Optional. Numeric value indicating how many places are displayed to the right of the decimal. The default value is –1, which indicates that the computer's regional settings are used.

IncludeLeadingDigit
Optional. TriState constant that indicates whether a leading 0 is displayed for fractional values. See "Settings" for values.

UseParensForNegativeNumbers
Optional. TriState constant that indicates whether to place negative values within parentheses. See "Settings" for values.

GroupDigits
Optional. TriState constant that indicates whether or not numbers are grouped using the group delimiter specified in the locale settings. See "Settings" for values.

Settings

The IncludeLeadingDigit, UseParensForNegativeNumbers, and GroupDigits arguments have the following settings.

Constant	Description
TriState.True	True
TriState.False	False
TriState.UseDefault	The computer's regional settings

Exceptions

Exception type	Error number	Condition
InvalidCastException	13	Type is not numeric.

See the "Error number" column if you are upgrading Visual Basic 6.0 applications that use unstructured error handling. (You can compare the error number against the Number Property (Err Object).) However, when possible, you should consider replacing such error control with Structured Exception Handling Overview for Visual Basic.

Remarks

When one or more optional arguments are omitted the values for omitted arguments are provided by the locale settings.

Note

All settings information comes from the locale of the application. By default, that will be the locale set in the control panel. However, it may be changed programmatically by using the .NET Framework.

Example

This example demonstrates the FormatNumber function.

Dim TestNumber As Integer = 45600
' Returns "45,600.00".
Dim TestString As String = FormatNumber(TestNumber, 2, , , TriState.True)

Requirements

Namespace: Microsoft.VisualBasic

Module: Strings

Assembly: Visual Basic Runtime Library (in Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll)