FORMAT attribute

The text format of a widget or browse-cell.

Data type: CHARACTER

Access: Readable/Writeable

Applies to: BROWSE widget (cell), Buffer-field object handle, COMBO-BOX widget, FILL-IN widget, TEXT widget, TOGGLE-BOX widget

For DROP-DOWN-LIST combo-boxes, if you set this attribute with items in the drop-down list, all items are converted to the new format. This attribute is ignored for SIMPLE and DROP-DOWN combo-boxes.

For combo boxes whose entries consist of label-value pairs, the AVM converts all values to the new format.

For browses, this attribute applies only to fill-in and combo-box browse columns.

For browses in Windows, if you modify the FORMAT attribute of a browse-cell, its format changes, but its size does not.

For buffer-fields, the value of the FORMAT attribute does not affect the ABL user interface anywhere. Rather, it controls the output of the STRING-VALUE attribute, and lets users explicitly format non-ABL user interfaces.