Convert Number to String?

SharpTools.io (web)
1

I have a need to convert a number in a variable to text which I will concat with another string and store in a different string variable. I’ve had a dig through the Expressions documentation but I can’t find a way to transform the numeric value to string.

Can anyone help?

EDIT: Never mind. I realized I can accomplish what I need simply by setting the value of the string variable manually and appending the number variable. Duh.

2

You could also do this with the replace() function in an expression as it attempts some implicit conversions.

myNumber = 2
replace("The value is {x} now!", "{x}", myNumber)

You could also use the stringify() method which JSON stringifies the input. In the case of a number, the output is the raw string value for the number.

myNumber = 2
concat("The value is ", stringify(myNumber), " now!")
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3

Thanks Josh. I’ll take a look at those options. I just noticed my approach mentioned in my EDIT above is flawed anyway. If the number ends in a 0 it is dropped once added to the string.

4

@josh I tried both your alternatives and in both cases they also drop trailing zeroes. Any ideas how to stop that?

5

Do you mean decimal values with trailing zeros? Or can you share an example value?

6

Yes, sorry for not being clearer.

For example, if I have a number = 137.90, once I process it through the methods we’ve discussed it becomes 137.9 and 138.00 becomes 138.

7

I don’t believe we have a function exposed that outputs a number in a fixed precision. Perhaps some sort of function that does this is warranted. :thinking:

In the meantime, you could write an expression to stringify your number, split it at the decimal, and zero-pad the right side.

myNumber = 2
str = stringify(myNumber)
parts = split(str, ".")
integers = parts[0]
decimals = count(parts) > 1 ? parts[1] : ""
decimals = left(concat(decimals, "00000"), 2)
concat(integers, ".", decimals)
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8

Perhaps Josh. For context, if it’s not obvious, my number is a dollars and cents value.

I will give this a go. I really appreciate the guidance. I’m reasonably technical but never been a developer and some coding logic and syntaxes are difficult for me without good directions.

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9

This did it.

Thank you!

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10

We added a new toFixed() method that will do this for you:

  • toFixed(input, digits) - takes a numeric input along with a number of digits to display and formats the number as a string with the specified number of digits (rounding if necessary)
    • input: numeric input value
    • digits: fixed number of digits after the decimal place to display (0-100)

Example:

toFixed(12.345, 2) #// "12.35"
toFixed(12.345, 0) #// "12"
toFixed(120, 2)    #// "120.00"
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11

Wow. That’s just awesome Josh. I will convert to this shortly.

Thank you!

EDIT: Implemented in my rule and working like a dream.

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