I ran into a problem when trying to get percentage values from excel using ExcelReference.getValues(). For 300% it comes back as 3.0 and so on.
Is there any way to distinguish if the value was percentage and formatted to number?
The problem is similar to this one how to convert user input to string in Excel-DNA although it's more formatting problem than calculating formula
You can use the C API GET.CELL information function to get the formatted value of the cell, using info type 53. It returns: "Contents of the cell as it is currently displayed, as text, including any additional numbers or symbols resulting from the cell's formatting."
object contents = XlCall.Excel(XlCall.xlfGetCell, 53, theReference);
Related
I have a listbox with 2 columns (say "from time" and "to time"). I want to filter user input by 24 hour format only i.e. no other key should be allowed to press except 24 hour time format (i.e 00:00 to 24:00) in the cell. I tried with this: &"0-2"#&"0-3"#:& "0-5"#&"0-9"# it works well but it didn't allow to put something 19:22 or the value after 13:59 in the cell value as I haven't passed other optional value for that 24 hour time format. In regex, it's a bit easy to achieve this ('/^([01][0-9]|2[0-3]):([0-5][0-9])$/') but not sure how this can be done in the 4d database listbox cell field.
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
I suggest you make the list box columns text and manage the display and UI yourself if you require fine control over the input values.
The Time string method will convert a time value for you:
$timeStr:=Time string(Current time) // $timeStr = "07:23:45"
The input filters are not RegEx and will not give you the kind of fine control you need. They will let you filter unwanted characters (anything besides numbers for instance). Try this for the Entry Filter on the column
!0&9##:##:##
The result will be a text string of the numbers entered. Write a method to take the input string, parse the elements, validate them, update the data source and then return a properly formatted string for display. I would use the On data change form event as the trigger for running the method.
$h:=Num(Substring($inputStr;1;2))
$m:=Num(Substring($inputStr;3;2))
$s:=Num(Substring($inputStr;5;2))
Recent versions of 4D manage time values as seconds since midnight which is why you may get a longint value instead of a 'time' value sometimes. And depending on which version you are using and the type of listbox (collection, entity selection, array, etc.) you may not even have a 'time' type option for the list box column which can be confusing. Given all that it's just easier to stringify the value and work with that.
For example, what do you want to do if a user enters "33:45:00"? If you want to reject the "33" at the outset you can do this by evaluating each character as it is typed. The On After Keystroke form event lets you run your evaluation method after each change in the field and the Get edited text command allows you to see what the user is entering. https://doc.4d.com/4Dv18R3/4D/18-R3/Get-edited-text.301-4901376.en.html
To convert a string (or longint) into a time value use the Time method:
$timeVar:=Time($timeStr)
4D is a typed language and has had a time type since the beginning. However with the addition of ORDA some UI objects no longer support the time type (collection and entity selection list boxes, for example) and use a longint type instead. This can be confusing if you are working with an existing app or older code but attempting to use the newer tools. Be sure to look over
https://developer.4d.com/docs/en/Concepts/time.html
and
https://doc.4d.com/4Dv18/4D/18/Date-and-Time.201-4504355.en.html
You may not need to get so involved in the input. It depends on the nature of the UI and the data. Time and date is tricky in just about every platform.
I am currently trying to work out how to make the current Google Sheets version of COUNTIF properly count how many times the value of a cell (C3) is higher than the value if another cell (E3), according to the following formula:
=COUNTIF('4'!$C$3,">'4'!$E$3")
You'll note that the formula is run in a different tab than the one where the cells being counted are located in (which is named "4"). The formula returns a zero '0', when it should be returning a one '1', as the value in '4'!$C$3 actually is higher than the value in '4'!$E$3.
Clearly, I am doing something wrong.
So, the user I'-'I (stackoverflow.com/users/8404453/i-i) suggested the following edit:
=COUNTIF('4'!$C$3,">'4'!$E$3") --> COUNTIF('4'!$C$3,">"&'4'!$E$3)
This suggestion resolved my issue.
I am attempting to allow a dynamic sort on a text box on an SSRS report. The field upon which I am trying to sort will either have an "A" or a decimal number. I am wanting to sort the decimal numbers in descending order. The expression I am using is:
=iif(isnumeric(Fields!CommScore.Value), (cdbl(Fields!CommScore.Value)*-1),6)
For the decimal number will never be larger than 5. The error I get is:
The sortexpression for the text box 'textbox74' contains an error. Input string was not in a correct format. (rsRuntimeErrorInExpression)
I imagine this is something simple. What am I doing wrong?
The error relates to the CDbl function throwing an exception when trying to convert A to a number. Yes, I know you're checking if it is numeric first but IIF is not a language construct, it is a function and as a function it evaluates all its parameters before passing them to the function. This means that both the true and false parameters get calculated even though one will be discarded.
Try the Val function. It has the benefit of not erroring when it gets passed non-numeric data - it just does the best it can to convert it.
=IIF(IsNumeric(Fields!CommScore.Value), (Val(Fields!CommScore.Value)*-1), 6)
Can I determine if the user entered a phone number that can be safely formatted into E164?
For Germany, this requires that the user started his entry with a local area code. For example, 123456 may be a subscriber number in his city, but it cannot be formatted into E164, because we don't know his local area code. Then I would like to keep the entry as it is. In contrast, the input 089123456 is independent of the area code and could be formatted into E164, because we know he's from Germany and we could convert this into +4989123456.
You can simply convert your number into E164 using libphonenumber
and after conversion checks if both the strings are same or not. If they're same means a number can not be formatted, otherwise the number you'll get from library will be formatted in E164.
Here's how you can convert
PhoneNumberUtil phoneUtil = PhoneNumberUtil.getInstance();
String formattedNumber = phoneUtil.format(inputNumber, PhoneNumberFormat.E164);
Finally compare formattedNumber with inputNumber
It looks as though you'll need to play with isValidNumber and isPossibleNumber for your case. format is certainly not guaranteed to give you something actually dialable, see the javadocs. This is suggested by the demo as well, where formatting is not displayed when isValidNumber is false.
I also am dealing with this FWIW. In the context of US numbers: The issue is I'd like to parse using isPossibleNumber in order to be as lenient as possible, and store the number in E164. However then we accept, e.g. +15551212. This string itself even passes isPossibleNumber despite clearly (I think) not being dialable anywhere.
I am writing a button calculator. I have the code split into model, view and a controller. The model knows nothing about formatting, it is only concerned with numbers. All formatting is done in the view. The model gets its input as keypresses, each keypress is a part of an enum:
typedef enum {
kButtonUnknown = 0,
kButtonMemoryClear = 100,
kButtonMemoryPlus = 112,
kButtonMemoryMinus = 109,
kButtonMemoryRecall = 114,
kButtonClear = 99,
…
};
When the user presses a button (say 1), the model receives a button code (kButtonNum1), adds the corresponding number to a string input buffer ("1") and updates the numeric output value (1.0). The controller then passes the numeric output value to the view that formats it (1).
This is all plain, simple and clean, but does not really work. The problem is that when user enters a part of a number (say 0.00, going to enter 0.001), the input does not survive the way through model to view and the display says 0 instead of 0.00. I know why this happens ("0.00"::string parses to 0::double and that gets formatted as 0). What I don’t know is how to design the calculator so that the code stays clean and simple and the numbers will show up on screen exactly as the user types them.
I’ve already come with some kind of solution, but that’s essentially a hack and breaks the beautiful and simple flow from the calculator model to the display.
Ideas?
Current solution keeps track of the calculator state. If the calculator is building a number, I take the calculator input buffer (a string) and directly set the display contents (also a string). Otherwise I take the proper path, ie. take the numeric calculator output, pass it to the view as a double and the view uses its internal formatter to create a string for the display. Example input:
input | display | mode
------+---------+------------
0 | 0 | from string
0. | 0. | from string
0.0 | 0.0 | from string
0.0+ | 0 | from number
This is ugly. (1) The calculator has to expose its input buffer and state. (2) The view has to expose its display and allow setting its contents directly using a string. (3) I have to duplicate some of the formatting code to format the string I got from the calculator input buffer. If user enters 12345.000, I have to display 12,345.000 and therefore I’ve got to have a commification code for strings. Yuck.
On my calculator (HP48SX) the numbers in the display are formatted according to the settings for displaying numbers. Right now, if I enter 0.00 (or any variant thereof) it is displayed as 0.0000. Perhaps you could separate display (ie formatting) from internal number representation ? In terms of MVC I guess that this would be implemented as state in the C.
EDIT in response to OP's comment. I don't fully understand the limitations of what you call a button calculator so you're on your own there. As for separation, I would design the calculator such that:
Model is always working with whatever you use for representing numbers: floats, doubles, decimals, what-have-you.
View is always working with strings which present numbers nicely and allow users to enter as they wish.
Controller translates from string to number, from number to string. In my original suggestion I envisaged that Controller itself would be stateful (storing current-numeric-format for example) and be addressable from the buttons. But you seem to have ruled that out.
Your problem, as I see it, is that if you don't store this state somewhere then you have no way of telling the calculator to use anything other than a fixed* format for displaying any number entered. By fixed* I mean a very limited form of flexibility, such as always displaying the number of decimal digits that were in the most recently entered number, rather than absolutely fixed such as 12 digits, no more and no less.
At last I’ve found a nicer solution. I have added an inputHint property to the formatter object that takes care of the output formatting in the view. This input hint receives the value of the calculator input buffer and affects the formatting. If there is a decimal dot in the input hint, the formatter is forced to always keep the decimal dot in output, therefore solving the case of "0." being formatted as "0". And if the input contains some fraction digits, the formatter is forced to keep the same number of fraction digits in output (solves the case of "0.00" being formatted as "0").
I still have to expose the calculator input buffer and state, but I don’t have to expose the view’s display as string and don’t have to maintain the duplicate formatting code path for strings.