Dec 21

ActionScript String formating with Sprintf

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ActionScript only provides some basic but powerful methods for string handling. By combining them you can create almost every functionality you need when working with character based data. Sprintf is a class that offers string formatting as known from other programming languages like Perl or C.

According to a format, Sprintf produces an output based on a given character string. The format is composed of zero or more directives: ordinary characters which are copied unchanged to the output and format specifications which results in fetching some arguments passed to the method.

Each format rule is introduced by the % character followed by some modifiers:

d, i    -->  integer
f       -->  float
s       -->  string
o       -->  octal
h, H    -->  hexadecimal
b       -->  binary

The example mixes the string with arguments:

import de.flamelab.util.Sprintf;

var format:String = "There are %d monkeys in the %s.";

Sprintf.format(format, 12, "house"); // result: There are 12 monkeys in the house.

The class also allows some more advanced formatting of numbers and values:

import de.flamelab.util.Sprintf;

var format:String = "%04d-%02d-%02d";

Sprintf.format(format, 2006, 1, 9); // result: 2006-01-09

var format:String = "Result: %02.2f";

Sprintf.format(format, 3/2); // result: Result: 01.50

The Sprintf class is part of the ASToolBox, a collection of usefull classes and code snippets that cover daily issues when developing Flash applications. Download the ASToolBox

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