where format_arg is a set of arguments used to specify format settings. If necessary, you should enclose the format_arg in double quotes.

For vectors, setformat operates on all of the cells in the vector.

You should use one of the following format specifications:

To specify a format that groups digits into thousands using a comma separator, place a “t” after the format character. For example, to obtain a fixed number of decimal places with commas used to separate thousands, use “ft[.precision]”.

To use the period character to separate thousands and commas to denote decimal places, use “..” (two periods) when specifying the precision. For example, to obtain a fixed number of characters with a period used to separate thousands, use “ct[..precision]”.

If you wish to display negative numbers surrounded by parentheses (i.e., display the number -37.2 as “(37.2)”), you should enclose the format string in “()” (e.g., “f(.8)”).

To set the format for all cells in the vector to fixed 5-digit precision, simply provide the format specification:

Other format specifications include:

See Vector::setwidth, Vector::setindent and Vector::setjust for details on setting spreadsheet widths, indentation and justification.