Annotated Ada Reference Manual — Legal Information

F.3.3 The Package Text_IO.Editing

The package Text_IO.Editing provides a private type Picture with associated operations, and a generic package Decimal_Output. An object of type Picture is composed from a well-formed picture String (see F.3.1) and a Boolean item indicating whether a zero numeric value will result in an edited output string of all space characters. The package Decimal_Output contains edited output subprograms implementing the effects defined in F.3.2.

Static Semantics

The library package Text_IO.Editing has the following declaration:

package Ada.Text_IO.Editing is

type Picture is private;

function Valid (Pic_String : in String;
Blank_When_Zero : in Boolean := False) return Boolean;

   function To_Picture (Pic_String      : in String;
                        Blank_When_Zero : in Boolean := False)
      return Picture;

function Pic_String (Pic : in Picture) return String;
function Blank_When_Zero (Pic : in Picture) return Boolean;

Max_Picture_Length : constant := implementation_defined;

Picture_Error : exception;

   Default_Currency    : constant String    := "$";
   Default_Fill        : constant Character := '*';
   Default_Separator   : constant Character := ',';
   Default_Radix_Mark  : constant Character := '.';

   generic
      type Num is delta <> digits <>;
      Default_Currency   : in String    := Text_IO.Editing.Default_Currency;
      Default_Fill       : in Character := Text_IO.Editing.Default_Fill;
      Default_Separator  : in Character :=
                              Text_IO.Editing.Default_Separator;
      Default_Radix_Mark : in Character :=
                              Text_IO.Editing.Default_Radix_Mark;
   package Decimal_Output is
      function Length (Pic      : in Picture;
                       Currency : in String := Default_Currency)
         return Natural;

      function Valid (Item     : in Num;
                      Pic      : in Picture;
                      Currency : in String := Default_Currency)
         return Boolean;

      function Image (Item       : in Num;
                      Pic        : in Picture;
                      Currency   : in String    := Default_Currency;
                      Fill       : in Character := Default_Fill;
                      Separator  : in Character := Default_Separator;
                      Radix_Mark : in Character := Default_Radix_Mark)
         return String;

      procedure Put (Item       : in Num;
                     Pic        : in Picture;
                     Currency   : in String    := Default_Currency;
                     Fill       : in Character := Default_Fill;
                     Separator  : in Character := Default_Separator;
                     Radix_Mark : in Character := Default_Radix_Mark);

      procedure Put (To         : out String;
                     Item       : in Num;
                     Pic        : in Picture;
                     Currency   : in String    := Default_Currency;
                     Fill       : in Character := Default_Fill;
                     Separator  : in Character := Default_Separator;
                     Radix_Mark : in Character := Default_Radix_Mark);
   end Decimal_Output;
private
   ... -- not specified by the language
end Ada.Text_IO.Editing;

16.a

Implementation defined: The value of Max_Picture_Length in the package Text_IO.Editing

The exception Constraint_Error is raised if the Image function or any of the Put procedures is invoked with a null string for Currency.

function Valid (Pic_String : in String;
Blank_When_Zero : in Boolean := False) return Boolean;

Valid returns True if Pic_String is a well-formed picture String (see F.3.1) the length of whose expansion does not exceed Max_Picture_Length, and if either Blank_When_Zero is False or Pic_String contains no '*'.

function To_Picture (Pic_String      : in String;
                     Blank_When_Zero : in Boolean := False)
   return Picture;

To_Picture returns a result Picture such that the application of the function Pic_String to this result yields an expanded picture String equivalent to Pic_String, and such that Blank_When_Zero applied to the result Picture is the same value as the parameter Blank_When_Zero. Picture_Error is raised if not Valid(Pic_String, Blank_When_Zero).

function Pic_String (Pic : in Picture) return String;

function Blank_When_Zero (Pic : in Picture) return Boolean;

If Pic is To_Picture(String_Item, Boolean_Item) for some String_Item and Boolean_Item, then:

Pic_String(Pic) returns an expanded picture String equivalent to String_Item and with any lower-case letter replaced with its corresponding upper-case form, and

Blank_When_Zero(Pic) returns Boolean_Item.

If Pic_1 and Pic_2 are objects of type Picture, then "="(Pic_1, Pic_2) is True when

Pic_String(Pic_1) = Pic_String(Pic_2), and

Blank_When_Zero(Pic_1) = Blank_When_Zero(Pic_2).

function Length (Pic      : in Picture;
                 Currency : in String := Default_Currency)
   return Natural;

Length returns Pic_String(Pic)'Length + Currency_Length_Adjustment – Radix_Adjustment where

Currency_Length_Adjustment =

Currency'Length – 1 if there is some occurrence of '$' in Pic_String(Pic), and

0 otherwise.

Radix_Adjustment =

1 if there is an occurrence of 'V' or 'v' in Pic_Str(Pic), and

0 otherwise.

function Valid (Item     : in Num;
                Pic      : in Picture;
                Currency : in String := Default_Currency)
   return Boolean;

Valid returns True if Image(Item, Pic, Currency) does not raise Layout_Error, and returns False otherwise.

function Image (Item       : in Num;
                Pic        : in Picture;
                Currency   : in String    := Default_Currency;
                Fill       : in Character := Default_Fill;
                Separator  : in Character := Default_Separator;
                Radix_Mark : in Character := Default_Radix_Mark)
   return String;

Image returns the edited output String as defined in F.3.2 for Item, Pic_String(Pic), Blank_When_Zero(Pic), Currency, Fill, Separator, and Radix_Mark. If these rules identify a layout error, then Image raises the exception Layout_Error.

procedure Put (File       : in File_Type;
               Item       : in Num;
               Pic        : in Picture;
               Currency   : in String    := Default_Currency;
               Fill       : in Character := Default_Fill;
               Separator  : in Character := Default_Separator;
               Radix_Mark : in Character := Default_Radix_Mark);

procedure Put (Item       : in Num;
               Pic        : in Picture;
               Currency   : in String    := Default_Currency;
               Fill       : in Character := Default_Fill;
               Separator  : in Character := Default_Separator;
               Radix_Mark : in Character := Default_Radix_Mark);

Each of these Put procedures outputs Image(Item, Pic, Currency, Fill, Separator, Radix_Mark) consistent with the conventions for Put for other real types in case of bounded line length (see A.10.6, “Get and Put Procedures”).

procedure Put (To         : out String;
               Item       : in Num;
               Pic        : in Picture;
               Currency   : in String    := Default_Currency;
               Fill       : in Character := Default_Fill;
               Separator  : in Character := Default_Separator;
               Radix_Mark : in Character := Default_Radix_Mark);

Put copies Image(Item, Pic, Currency, Fill, Separator, Radix_Mark) to the given string, right justified. Otherwise unassigned Character values in To are assigned the space character. If To'Length is less than the length of the string resulting from Image, then Layout_Error is raised.

Implementation Requirements

Max_Picture_Length shall be at least 30. The implementation shall support currency strings of length up to at least 10, both for Default_Currency in an instantiation of Decimal_Output, and for Currency in an invocation of Image or any of the Put procedures.

45.a

Discussion: This implies that a picture string with character replications need not be supported (i.e., To_Picture will raise Picture_Error) if its expanded form exceeds 30 characters.

NOTES

4 The rules for edited output are based on COBOL (ANSI X3.23:1985, endorsed by ISO as ISO 1989-1985), with the following differences:

The COBOL provisions for picture string localization and for 'P' format are absent from Ada.

The following Ada facilities are not in COBOL:

currency symbol placement after the number,

localization of edited output string for multi-character currency string values, including support for both length-preserving and length-expanding currency symbols in picture strings

localization of the radix mark, digits separator, and fill character, and

parenthesization of negative values.

52.1

The value of 30 for Max_Picture_Length is the same limit as in COBOL.

52.a

Reason: There are several reasons we have not adopted the COBOL-style permission to provide a single-character replacement in the picture string for the `$' as currency symbol, or to interchange the roles of `.' and `,' in picture strings

52.b

It would have introduced considerable complexity into Ada, as well as confusion between run-time and compile-time character interpretation, since picture Strings are dynamically computable in Ada, in contrast with COBOL

52.c

Ada's rules for real literals provide a natural interpretation of `_' as digits separator and `.' for radix mark; it is not essential to allow these to be localized in picture strings, since Ada does not allow them to be localized in real literals.

52.d

The COBOL restriction for the currency symbol in a picture string to be replaced by a single character currency symbol is a compromise solution. For general international usage a mechanism is needed to localize the edited output to be a multi-character currency string. Allowing a single-Character localization for the picture Character, and a multiple-character localization for the currency string, would be an unnecessary complication.