There are many different ways to format your data. In this post, when we talk about formatting, we don’t mean styling (font, color, etc) – we are talking about altering the format of your data. For example, you have created a document that includes numbers, but the data comes through without pretty formatted numbers that include commas to separate the thousands. Or you may want to convert a word to all lowercase. Much of this formatting can be done pretty easily.
Here are some examples...
- Format a number:
- {$VariableName|number_format:2}
- Example: 5235.34 = 5,235.34
- The pipe "|" indicates a formatting function. The 2 indicates the number of decimals
- International: {$VariableName|number_format:2:',':'.'} = 5.235,34 (this uses a comma for decimal place and dot for thousands separator)
- Convert word to lowercase
- {$VariableName|lower}
- Example: WebMerge = webmerge
- Convert new line characters to HTML break lines
- {$VariableName|nl2br}
- This modifier converts new line characters “ ” to HTML <br />
- Format a date
- {$StartDate|date_format:"m/d/Y"}
- {strtotime("+ 5 days", strtotime($_date))|date_format:"m/d/Y"}
- For more options, check out www.php.net/date
- Format a phone number
- {$WorkPhone|phone_format:"(%3) %3-%4"}
- The %[Num] in the format value indicate how many digits to show
- International Date/Translation
- {$_ = setlocale(LC_TIME, "spanish")}
- Then you can print a date like this: {strftime("%d %B %Y", strtotime($_date))|ucwords}
- More formatting options for strftime: http://php.net/strftime
For more information on using variable modifiers, please visit http://www.smarty.net/docs/en/language.modifiers.tpl
18 Comments
The numbers are formattet wrong. It does not take into account that in Norway we format differently. one million is 1 000 000,- or 1.000.000,- The decimal punktation is a comma , and thousand seperator is SPACE or DOT
Hi Einar,
We have added an international number example above that uses a comma for the decimal and a dot for the thousands separator. You can actually customize all of the punctuation using {$VariableName|number_format:2:'DECIMAL POINT':'THOUSAND SEPARATOR'}
Thanks!
For replace function,I just check in smarty it has replace http://www.smarty.net/docs/en/language.modifier.replace.tpl ,so is supported by Webmerge
Yes, you can use the replace function
How we do REPLACE(REPLACE(A, W, X), Y, Z)) using Web Merge?
It will actually be easier to use the php str_replace function like this:
{str_replace(str_replace(A, W, X), Y, Z))}
If you have more questions, please create a support ticket and we can help you directly!
Is it mean that I can direct use PHP syntax in Word document although I will be generated document from Salesforce?
That's correct - we allow basic PHP functionality (like string functions) inside your templates.
I have a danish social security numbers for input.
By default webmerge makes it look like this: 1,234,561,234
I need the following format: 123456-1234
How do i go around that?
Hi Kasper,
You can use the "phone_format" modifier (even though it isn't a phone number), like this: {$ssn|phone_format:"%6-%4"}
In webmerge there is no field that records the year of creation for the field map.
I have only full dates.
Is it possible to use a merge only part of the date, so i only pull the year?
Hi Kasper,
Yes, you can use the "date_format" modifier like this: {$StartDate|date_format:"Y"} and that will only print the year.
How do I format the results of a calculation?
For example:
If {$Variable1*($Variable2/Variable3)-(Variable1*Variable4)} results in 1000000, how do I format the result to to look like 1,000,000?
Hi Todd,
Like this: {($Variable1*($Variable2/Variable3)-(Variable1*Variable4))|number_format}
Can you show all the options for a phone format modifier?
Hi Albert,
We've updated the article above to show an example, but here it is:
{$WorkPhone|phone_format:"(%3) %3-%4"}
The %[Number] indicates how many digits from the number to show.
Turns out you can do a lot more than just format numbers. You can use conditionals to create arrays which can be used in the data routing rules to create batch copies of documents with an incoming stream of data. I'll write something up for you Jeremy if you want and you can post as a tip here.
Thanks Alex!