Formatting numbers and align the display

[ArtSooki]

How do you line up number when using NumberFormat function.
ie. The following code displays a positive and a negative number that are both right justified:
xx33,456
(33,456)
(note: xx is used to demostrate spaces here, it does not show up in the output)

<tr><td align="right">#NumberFormat(33456,"(9,999)" )#</td></tr>
<tr><td align="right">#NumberFormat(-33456,"(9,999)" )#</td></tr>

As you can see both lines or numbers are flushed to the right and the numbers don't line up.

I need to have the numbers line up as follows:
x33,456
(33,456)

(again I used x as space here)

I can not use an extra space since the width of space is different than ')'
I tried adding "<font color=white>)</font>" ie. a white ')' at the end of positive numbers but that does not work either.

Any suggestions?

Thank you in advance.

ArtSooki@aol.com

[Guest]

The concept code below is a bit torturous, but will probably get you what you're after. The idea is to place the right parenthesis in an adjoining column. You will need to place NumberFormat ( ) into the mix somewhere.

[ArtSooki]

Thank you very much for responding to my question.

Unfortunately CELLPADDING and/or CELLSPACING can not be 0 since it is a very complex reporting format.
If I set them to 0 then I have to add bunch of extra blank columns to compensate for that.
Any other suggestions?

I believe MS Word and Adobe writer have a tab or a formatting style specifically for this purpose.
Has anyone explored writing a custom tag or a script maybe to call adobe pdf API to utilize pdf writer's formatting capability?

I can't believe I am the first person requiring to do this.

Hopefully when we come up with an answer everyone can benefit.

Thanks again.

Looking forward to more respond, please!!!

[Guest]

dear lord this isn't by any means pretty or elegant... but just to toss it out there as an option...

[efecto747]

Use an empty image tag to position positive numbers instead of a space - play around with the exact width until it lines up correctly.

The example below places a 5 pixel blank image after positive numbers:

#NumberFormat(anyNumber,"(9,999)" )#<cfif anyNumber ge 0><img width="5" height="0"></cfif>

cheers.

[Dan_Bracuk]

Use a negative sign instead of brackets to indicate negative numbers.