format

Description

Composes a string containing other variables or other variable types. Converts any variable type to a string.

Important

To convert a string back to a number, see parseNumber.

joinString can be a bit faster, without string length limitation.

Note

the maximum length of the string is 8,388,608 characters (was 8191 before)

two consecutive percent symbols will be formatted to a single percent symbol in the final string (see #Example 3) Since Arma 3 v2.18

Syntax

format [formatString, var1, var2, ...]

Parameters:

formatString: String - a string containing text and/or references to the variables listed below in the array. The references appear in the form of %1, %2 etc.
varN: Anything - variable referenced by %N

Returns: String - the full string (up to 8kb, see above) is returned.

Examples

Example 1

format ["Player:%1, player's side:%2", player, side player]; // returns "Player:WEST 1-1-A:1 (Username), player's side:WEST"

Example 2

player addEventHandler ["HandleDamage", {
    hint format ["You just sustained %1%2 damage!", ceil ((_this select 2) * 100), "%"];
}]; // Shows "You just sustained 20% damage!"

Example 3

// Since Arma 3 v2.18 two consecutive percent symbols will be formatted to a single percent symbol in the final string (%% -> %)
player addEventHandler ["HandleDamage", {
    hint format ["You just sustained %1%% damage!", ceil ((_this select 2) * 100)];
}]; // Shows "You just sustained 20% damage!"

Community notes

Worldeater2009-03-02

The maximum number of characters returned by the format command seems to depend on the total byte count. For plain ASCII strings the limit is 2048 characters.

Heeeere's Johnny!2015-03-28

In addition to the note above, formatTexted strings are Structured Text, hence cannot be used like formatted strings (with most scripting commands). A workaround to get strings of type String with more than 8191 characters is:

str formatText ["%1", _string]