This attribute offers a choice between different ways to format the numbersthat are drawn adjacent to major tick marks. The time formats allow almost any representation of a time value you might want. In all cases, the numbers are drawn using only as much precision as is needed to distinctly identify the value of each tick mark.
For example, if the "HOURS" format is chosen and the TICK SPACING attribute is set to 60 (seconds), the numbers will be drawn as HH:MM. The seconds field is dropped because it is not needed in order to accurately represent the tick values.
Allowed Values For NUMBER FORMAT
Allowed Value
Description
AUTO
Selects between FIXED, ENGINEERING, and SCIENTIFIC to represent the number with the smallest number of characters
FIXED
Displays fixed-point number format
SCIENTIFIC
Displays standard scientific notation, for example: 3.38E-12
ENGINEERING
Uses engineering format with the exponent represented
by the following single letter designators (listed with their
equivalent scientific notation exponents):
Letter Designator
Equivalent Scientific Notation
m
E-03
u
E-06
n
E-09
p
E-12
f
E-15
a
E-18
k
E+03
M
E+06
G
E+09
T
E+12
P
E+15
E
E+18
The following time formats all assume that the POINT LOCATION values arein seconds, as given by the HTBasic TIMEDATE function. The XY GRAPH does the conversion from seconds to the formats in the following table.
NOTE
The allowed values for the "MINUTES", "HOURS", and "DAYS" formats do not wrap around as the values for "CLOCK12" and "CLOCK24" do. Instead, the most significant fields accumulate indefinitely. For example, if the value of NUMBER FORMAT is "DAYS", the seconds, minutes, and hours fields will have maximum values of 59, 59, and 23, respectively, but the days field can accumulate indefinitely.
Time-related Allowed Values for NUMBER FORMAT
Allowed Value
Format Displayed in Tick Labels
MINUTES
minutes:seconds
HOURS
hours:minutes:seconds
DAYS
days:hours:minutes:seconds
CLOCK12
hours:minutes:secondsA (AM) OR
hours:minutes:secondsP (PM)
- The display wraps around to 1:00 after 12:59.
- Any tick labels representing negative time values will display
the time as if the clock were turned back from midnight. For
example, a tick at -20 seconds would be labeled as 11:59:40P.
CLOCK24
hours:minutes:seconds
- The display wraps around to 00:00 after 23:59.
- Any tick labels representing negative time values will display
the time as if the clock were turned back from midnight. For
example, a tick at -20 seconds would be labeled as 23:59:40.
