Formatting Data

For more comprehensive data formatting options, from the Data Display window, click on View > Format Data. This will take you to the Format Data window. Within this window you can:

set the caption for the display grid
change the order of the columns in the display, by dragging columns up and down in the list.
display the columns in alphabetic order. To do this, click on the Column header to sort by the column name.
specify the alignment of the data in the columns.
specify a customized Format for the column (this is described below)
specify whether columns are hidden by checking the Hidden checkbox
adjust the Column widths
specify the display sort order.

Saving / Loading the Display Formatting

Once you have formatted the data in the way you want, you can save the data layout. See Saving / retrieving the display Layout for more on this.

Sort Order

Use this column to specify the columns the display is to be sorted by.

Sorting by multiple columns

You can sort by multiple columns.

When you are sorting by multiple columns, the sequence that they will be sorted by is the order the columns appear in the display. For instance, if you wish to sort by ColumnA, then by ColumnB, you need to have ColumnA appearing before ColumnB in the display.

Data Format

By default, AQT uses a format of General to display the data in the grid. Many other formats are possible. Some of these are available in the drop-down box you get when you click in a Format cell. Data Formatting is a function provided by the Sharpgrid control, rather than AQT per se.

When you apply a Format to a column, this just changes the way the data is displayed. The underlying data value is unchanged.

Checkbox	Displays a checkbox. It will be checked when the data value is 1 or -1 or True. Otherwise it will be unchecked.
Currency	Display data with thousands separator, currency symbol and with two digits right of the decimal place. Based on the system locale settings.
Fixed	Display at least one digit to the left and two digits to the right of the decimal separator.
Percent	Display number with thousand separator, at least one digit to the left and two digits to the right of the decimal separator.
Standard	Display number multiplied by 100 with a percent sign (%) appended to the right; always display two digits to the right of the decimal separator.
Scientific	Use standard scientific notation
Yes/No	Display No if number is 0, otherwise Yes.
True/False	Display False if number is 0, otherwise True.
On/Off	Display Off if number is 0, otherwise On.
Long/Medium/Short Date/Time	Display a date/time according to your system's long/medium/short date format.

Custom Formats

For numeric values and date / time values, you can also use custom-formats, for example

$###,##0.00
dddd mmmm yyyy
(000)000-000

In these:

#	digit placeholder, Display a digit or nothing
0	digit placeholder. Display a digit or 0.
.	decimal digit
,	thousands separator
%	percent indicator. When this is specified in the format-string, the value will be multiplied by 100 and the % placed where indicated.
-+$()	if any of these characters are specified, they will be displayed as is.
"ABC"	display other literal string
yyyy	year
dd	day. Can be specified as dd (numeric day), ddd (short day name) or dddd (full day name)
mm	month, Can be specified as mm (numeric month), mmm (short month name) or mmmm (full month name)
yyyy	year. Can be specified as yy or yyyy
hh	hour. Can be specified as h (hour without leading 0) or hh (hour with leading zero)
nn	minute. Can be specified as n or nn.
ss	second. Can be specified as s or ss.
am/pm	When this is specified, the time will be displayed as a 12-hour time, and the AM/PM symbol placed where indicated.