StringFormats - adventuregamestudio/ags-manual GitHub Wiki

String formatting

You will find many times in your game when you need to create a string based on the values of variables, and functions like Display and String.Format allow you to do so.

AGS uses printf-style argument formatting (used by the C language). This means that you intersperse your text with special codes to insert a variable's value. These special codes begin with a percent sign, and then specify the variable type. The actual variables that you want to display are then listed afterwards.

Some examples of the special codes you can use are as follows:

Code	Description
%d	Integer (use to display value of int and short variables)
%0Xd	Integer left-padded with up to X zeros
%s	String (use to display string variables)
%c	Character (displays the character corresponding to the supplied value)
%f	Float (displays a float variable)
%.Xf	Float to X decimal places
%%	Display the percent character (i.e. no variable)
[	Inserts a new line into the message

NOTE: Since AGS 3.6.0 the %c format code may display Unicode characters.

Some examples:

int life = 42;
float twoPi = Maths.Pi * 2.0;
String message = "A string variable";

Display("A normal string with no variables.");
Display("The meaning of life is %d.", life);
Display("The meaning of life in 3 digits is %03d.", life);
Display("2 times Pi is %f.", twoPi);
Display("The message says: %s.", message);

would display:

A normal string with no variables.
The meaning of life is 42.
The meaning of life in 3 digits is 042.
2 times Pi is 6.283186.
The message says: A string variable.

You can display as many variables as you like in one line:

int life = 42;
float twoPi = Maths.Pi * 2.0;

Display("Life is %d, 2 x Pi = %f, and my dinner is %s.", life, twoPi, "awful");

but, be very careful that you supply the right number of variables to correspond with the tags you use in the text. If you don't supply enough variables, your game could crash.