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Formatting

List Format

In the field:
{
expression
Format
format
}
where
expression
 is a list of texts, the
format
 is interpreted as a punctuation text.
Lists of texts are formatted by inserting punctuation symbols after each member of the list, and then concatenating the resulting list into a single text.

Punctuation symbols

There are 4 punctuation symbols referred to as the first and following symbol, the penultimate symbol, the last symbol and the symbol for two members only. If there are fewer than 4 punctuation symbols in the double-quoted format text then the missing symbols are inferred.
Format Text
First and Following Symbol
Penultimate Symbol
Last Symbol
Symbol for Two Members
", |, and |.| and "
", "
", and "
"."
" and "
", |, and |."
", "
", and "
"."
""
", |, and "
", "
"; and "
""
""
", "
","
""
""
""
""
""
""
""
""
In addition, certain escaped characters (not case sensitive) in the punctuation symbol are interpreted as MS Word controls:
Escaped Character
MS Word Control
^T
tab
^L
paragraph (Return) or manual line-break (Shift-Return)
^M
manual page-break
^N
manual column-break
^|
vertical bar character
^^
hat character

Punctuation algorithm

The punctuation algorithm depends upon the length of the list.
Number of Marks
Punctuation
0
No punctuation.
1
The
last
 symbol is inserted after the
only
 member.
2
The symbol for two members is inserted after the first member, if specified. If the symbol for
two members
 is not specified, the
penultimate
 symbol is inserted after the first member. The
last
 symbol is inserted after the second member.
3+
The
last
 symbol is inserted after the last member, the
penultimate
 symbol is inserted after the
last-but-one
 member, and the
first and following
 symbol is inserted after every other member of the list.

Example 1

Consider a variable
ChildrenNames
 having the value:
List( "John", "Mary", "Peter", "Paul" )
The expression:
ChildrenNames Format ", |, and |."
evaluates to the text:
"John, Mary, Peter, and Paul."
whereas the expression:
ChildrenNames Format ",^L|, and^L|."
will appear in a generated document as multi-line text:
John,
Mary,
Peter, and
Paul.

Example 2

It is also possible to specify the use of separators depending on the number of items in the list to support Oxford comma. For example, use the format “, |, and |.| and “ to get:
  • “Anna and John.” for two items in the list
  • “Anna, John, and Lisa.” for three items in the list

This article applies to:

  • Product: Contract Express