Formatter external definitions

The following tables show the tags and tag attributes to externalize FormatElement objects in the toolkit format definition file.
Table 1. <constant> tag attributes (ConstantFormat)
Attributes Description
value The value of the constant.
Table 2. <fObject> tag attributes (HashtableFormat)
Attributes Description
dataName The name of the data element to be formatted.
key The key in the Hashtable.
Table 3. <fDate> tag attributes (DateFormat)
Attributes Description
dataName The name of the data element to be formatted.
ordering The order in which the elements of a date appear. The valid values are:
  • dmy (default)
  • mdy
  • ymd
fourDigYear A boolean that indicates whether the formatter uses four digits to represent the year. The default value is no.
sep The character used to separate day, month, and year characters. The default value is the forward slash (/).
useSep A boolean that indicates whether the date uses the separator character. The default value is yes.
Table 4. <fFloat> tag attributes (FloatFormat)
Attributes Description
dataName The name of the data element to be formatted.
size The size of the float. The valid values are float (for 4 bytes) and double (for 8 bytes). The default value is double.
byteOrdering The byte ordering of the float. The valid values are pc (for little-endian) and host (for big-endian). The default value is pc.
Table 5. <fInteger> tag attributes (IntegerFormat)
Attributes Description
dataName The name of the data element to be formatted.
size The size of the integer. The valid values are:
  • char (1 byte)
  • short (2 bytes)
  • 3 (3 bytes)
  • int (4 bytes) (default)
  • 5 (5 bytes)
  • 6 (6 bytes)
  • 7 (7 bytes)
  • long (8 bytes)
signRule A boolean that indicates whether the integer uses a sign. The default value is no.
byteOrdering The byte ordering of the integer. The valid values are pc (for little-endian) and host (for big-endian). The default value is pc.
Table 6. <fBinIntString> tag attributes (BinaryIntegerStringFormat)
Attributes Description
dataName The name of the data element to be formatted.
size The size of the integer. The valid values are:
  • char (1 byte)
  • short (2 bytes)
  • 3 (3 bytes)
  • int (4 bytes) (default)
  • 5 (5 bytes)
  • 6 (6 bytes)
  • 7 (7 bytes)
  • long (8 bytes)
signRule A boolean that indicates whether the integer uses a sign. The default value is no.
byteOrdering The byte ordering of the integer. The valid values are pc (for little-endian) and host (for big-endian). The default value is pc.
unformattedSize The size of the unformatted string.
padChar The character used to pad the string to make it fit the unformatted size. The default value is "0".
Table 7. <fNumbString> tag attributes (NumericStringFormat)
Attributes Description
dataName The name of the data element to be formatted.
decPlaces The number of positions to the right of decimal. The default value is 0.
decimalsSepChar The character used as the decimal separator. The default is provided by the java.text.DecimalFormat class.
thousandsSepChar The character used as the thousands separator. The default is provided by the java.text.DecimalFormat class.
showDecimalsSep A boolean that indicates whether the string uses the decimal separator. The default value is yes.
showThousandsSep A boolean that indicates whether the string uses the thousands separator. The default value is yes.
signRule The rule used to display the sign. The valid values are:
  • prefix (default)
  • suffix
  • parenthesis
usePositiveSign The representation of the positive sign. The valid values are:
  • no (for nothing) (default)
  • yes (+)
  • blank
Table 8. <fPacked> tag attributes (PackedFormat)
Attributes Description
dataName The name of the data element to be formatted.
decPlaces The number of positions to the right of decimal. The default value is 0.
signed A boolean that indicates whether the data element has a sign. The default value is yes.
Table 9. <fPackedDate> tag attributes (PackedDateFormat)
Attributes Description
dataName The name of the data element to be formatted.
Table 10. fString (StringFormat) tag attributes
Attributes Description
dataName The name of the data element to be formatted.
formatAs The case of the alphabetic characters after formatting. The valid values are:
  • asis (default)
  • lowercase
  • uppercase
unformatAs The case of the alphabetic characters after unformatting. The valid values are:
  • asis (default)
  • lowercase
  • uppercase
Table 11. <fTime> tag attributes (TimeFormat)
Attributes Description
dataName The name of the data element to be formatted.
hours The type of clock. The valid values are:
  • 12 (12 hours)
  • 24 (24 hours) (default)
showSeconds A boolean that indicates whether the time shows seconds. The default value is yes.
sep The character used to separate hour, minute, and second characters. The default value is the colon (:).
useSep A boolean that indicates whether the time uses the separator character. The default value is yes.
amString The String used to indicate morning. The default value is am.
pmString The String used to indicate afternoon. The default value is pm.
Table 12. <iCollF> tag attributes (IndexedCollectionFormat)
Attributes Description
dataName The name of the data element to be formatted.
times The number of times that the formatter should be applied. To apply the formatter to all elements of the string, use times="*"
append The action the formatter should take when unformatting elements into an indexed collection. The valid values are:
  • true - Appends the unformatted elements into the indexed collection.
  • false - Clears the indexed collection and then adds the unformatted elements.
  • ignore - Puts the unformatted elements into the indexed collections starting from the first position. This is the default value.
Table 13. <kColl> tag attributes (KeyedCollectionFormat)
Attributes Description
dataName The name of the data element to be formatted.
Table 14. <record> tag attributes (RecordFormat)
Attributes Description
dataName The name of the data element to be formatted.
Table 15. <dRecord> tag attributes (DynamicRecordFormat)
Attributes Description
dataName The name of the data element to be formatted.
emptyKeyedCollection A boolean value that indicates whether the keyed collection to be updated with the formatted string's contents is empty or not. If it is empty, the formatter does not search for the elements in the context. Instead, it creates the corresponding element to be inserted in the keyed collection. This behavior improves performance.
Table 16. <fXML> tag attributes (XMLFormat)
Attributes Description
dataName The name of the data element to be formatted.
unNamed A boolean that indicates, if the dataName tag does not exist, whether the formatter encloses the resulting string between <UnNamed> and </UnNamed> tags. If this behavior is not required, set the value of this attribute to false.
includeDataType A boolean that indicates whether to include the data type in the formatter. The data types can be field, keyed, or indexed. The default value is no.
Table 17. <fdXML> tag attributes (DynamicXMLFormat)
Attributes Description
dataName The name of the data element to be formatted.
kCollInsertedOnFormat A boolean that indicates whether to insert the name of the data element to be formatted. If the value is yes and the name does not exist, the formatter sets the name to unNamed. The default value is no.
createKCollOnUnformat A boolean that indicates whether the formatter should create the name of the data element to be unformatted. If the value is yes and the name does not exist, the formatter sets the name to unNamed. The default value is no.
Table 18. <pointer> tag attributes (DataPointer)
Attributes Description
dataName The name of a data element to be added in a DynamicXMLFormat.
context The name of the context that contains the data element.
Table 19. <mapper> tag attributes (DataMapperFormat)
Attributes Description
No attributes but the toolkit considers the first inner formatter element as the input formatter and the second inner formatter element as the output formatter
Table 20. <fTypedData> tag attributes (TypedDataElementFormat)
Attributes Description
dataName The name of the data element to be formatted.
conversionType The type of conversion to be used.