Show blank for zero values

Classic Servoy
1

How can I format a numeric field to show blanks if it contains a zero?

Thanks

2

use # - (zero shows as absent)

3

Thanks! I would try that.

4

Hi Jan,

This does not work completely.

I have a value 0 in a number field. I just # as format. But it shows the 0 instead of blank

Thanks
Hameed

5

Also when I clear the number field, it puts a zero by default. But I have not set any default value. How to overcome that please.

Thanks

6

It seems a bug from SUN, in the docs they say # - show 0 as absent
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/api … ormat.html
but it does not show, we will report this to SUN.

BTW it seems sort of working (zero not shown) when “#.00” is used as format

7

Actually the docs are probably a bit lousy, but this is really expected behavior. The # means blank padding, that is, “###” with the number 3 for example is shown as " 3". However, it will always output a number (and never a total blank), so “###” with the number 0 becomes " 0".

The comment from the SUN source code is clearer than the JavaDoc:

// Handle patterns with no ‘0’ pattern character. These patterns
// are legal, but must be interpreted. “##.###” → “#0.###”.
// “.###” → “.0##”.

/* We allow patterns of the form “####” to produce a zeroDigitCount of

  • zero (got that?); although this seems like it might make it possible
  • for format() to produce empty strings, format() checks for this
  • condition and outputs a zero digit in this situation.

Thus this behavior is intentional.

I’m afraid you’re going to have to find a different way of displaying an empty string for the number zero… (maybe using a calculation).

8

Last post on this subject was 2005.

Now it is 2012 and Servoy 5.2 / 6.0

Is there already a solution for this situation?

I have a column in the database numeric(9, 4)

Default format is #,##0.00##

So it shows:

DB Value Format
5,0000 5,00
5,2500 5,25
5,2570 5,257

But in case of value 0, I would like to see an empty field (so blank when zero).
Otherwise I must allow NULL values in the database and let 0 be a NULL value, but that is not really what I prefer.

9

this is just how the formatting works
and if you have a 0 then you have a 0, that is really not the same a null (which is nothing)

if you want something else, what you can do is place a converter in between, so that 0 are converted to null and visa versa i guess