3-part Format String

I mentioned in the previous post that you could use a 3-part formatting string in the format property of your numeric field to display blank when the number is 0.

Here is an example of a 3-part format property setting. If you put this in the Format field:

="$#,###;($#,###);#"

Then this says:

• When Positive use $#,### which is “Prefix with Dollar sign, blank when zero, comma thousands separator, no decimal places”
• When Negative use ($#,###) which is “Same as positive but within brackets”
• When 0 use # which is “Blank”.

This works quite nicely. Don't try using special characters like "C" for currency in your 3-part format string because this special character is itself interpreted as a 3-part string and you'll find it doesn't work.