Appian text()

The shape

text(value, format) turns a number, date, time or datetime into text, shaped by a format string.

text(1234.5, "#,##0.00")   →   "1,234.50"

The result is text. Do every calculation first and format last; once a number has been through text() it is for display, not for arithmetic.

If the format contains 0, # or ?, it is a number format. Otherwise it is read as a date or time format.

Number formats

• 0 — always a digit, padding with zeros: text(5, "000") is "005"
• # — a digit only if there is one: text(5, "###") is "5"
• . — the decimal point; , — thousands separators
• $, spaces, brackets and other characters appear as written
• % — multiplies by 100: text(0.25, "0%") is "25%"
• + — shows the sign, plus or minus

Use 0 just before the decimal point, as in #,##0.00, so that zero prints as 0.00 rather than .00.

The trap: extra decimals are cut off, not rounded

This is the one that catches everybody. text(1.239, "0.00") is "1.23", not "1.24" — Appian drops the digits beyond the format, without rounding.

When you want rounding, say so first: text(round(1.239, 2), "0.00") is "1.24".

Different formats for positive, negative and zero

Semicolons split a format into sections: positive;negative;zero. The negative section shows the number without its minus sign, so it can supply its own — the accounting style:

text(-10.25, "$00.00;(00.00)")   →   "(10.25)"

With one section, a negative number simply gets a minus in front. A condition in brackets picks a section by value instead: [<=9999999]000-0000;(000) 000-0000 formats a 7-digit number one way and anything longer the other.

Digits fill a pattern from the right

Other characters stay where they are, and the digits flow into the 0 slots around them. That is how IDs are laid out:

text(5551234567, "(000) 000-0000")   →   "(555) 123-4567"

Date formats

• mmmm February · mmm Feb · mm 02 · m 2
• yyyy 2020 · yy 20
• dd 27 · d 27 · ddd 27th · dddd Thursday
• EEEE Thursday · EEE Thu

Note that ddd is the day with a suffix, not a short weekday name. For a short weekday, use EEE.

Time formats, and the double meaning of mm

• h and hh — 12-hour clock; k and kk — 24-hour clock
• ss — seconds
• AM/PM, am/pm, A/P — in the case you write them

mm means month unless an hour appears somewhere to its left, in which case it means minutes. In mm/dd h:mm the first mm is the month and the second is the minutes.

Locale

Every output on this page is en_US. Appian formats by the user's locale, or the system's, so month names, separators and the currency sign can differ for other users.