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<chapter id="functions">

<title>Functions and Operators</title>

</itemizedlist>

</para>

<para>

Certain modifiers can be applied to any template pattern to alter its

behavior. For example, <literal>FM9999</literal>

is the <literal>9999</literal> pattern with the

<literal>FM</literal> modifier.

<xref linkend="functions-formatting-numericmod-table"> shows the

modifier patterns for numeric formatting.

</para>

<table id="functions-formatting-numericmod-table">

<title>Template Pattern Modifiers for Numeric Formatting</title>

<tgroup cols="3">

<thead>

<row>

<entry>Modifier</entry>

<entry>Description</entry>

<entry>Example</entry>

</row>

</thead>

<tbody>

<row>

<entry><literal>FM</literal> prefix</entry>

<entry>fill mode (suppress padding blanks and zeroes)</entry>

<entry><literal>FM9999</literal></entry>

</row>

<row>

<entry><literal>TH</literal> suffix</entry>

<entry>uppercase ordinal number suffix</entry>

<entry><literal>999TH</literal></entry>

</row>

<row>

<entry><literal>th</literal> suffix</entry>

<entry>lowercase ordinal number suffix</entry>

<entry><literal>999th</literal></entry>

</row>

</tbody>

</tgroup>

</table>

<para>

<xref linkend="functions-formatting-examples-table"> shows some

examples of the use of the <function>to_char</function> function.