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(groff)Assigning Formats

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Assigning Formats
-----------------

   When a register is used in the text of an input file (as opposed to
part of an expression), it is textually replaced (or interpolated) with
a representation of that number.  This output format can be changed to
a variety of formats (numbers, Roman numerals, etc.).  This is done
using the `af' request.

 - Request: .af ident format
     Change the output format of a number register.  The first argument
     IDENT is the name of the number register to be changed, and the
     second argument FORMAT is the output format.  The following output
     formats are available:

    `1'
          Decimal arabic numbers.  This is the default format: 0, 1, 2,
          3, ....

    `0...0'
          Decimal numbers with as many digits as specified.  So, `00'
          would result in printing numbers as 01, 02, 03, ....

          In fact, any digit instead of zero will do; `gtroff' only
          counts how many digits are specified.  As a consequence,
          `af''s default format `1' could be specified as `0' also (and
          exactly this is returned by the `\g' escape, see below).

    `I'
          Upper-case Roman numerals: 0, I, II, III, IV, ....

    `i'
          Lower-case Roman numerals: 0, i, ii, iii, iv, ....

    `A'
          Upper-case letters: 0, A, B, C, ..., Z, AA, AB, ....

    `a'
          Lower-case letters: 0, a, b, c, ..., z, aa, ab, ....

     Omitting the number register format causes a warning of type
     `missing'.  Note: Debugging, for more details.  Specifying a
     nonexistent format causes an error.

     The following example produces `10, X, j, 010':


          .nr a 10
          .af a 1           \" the default format
          \na,
          .af a I
          \na,
          .af a a
          \na,
          .af a 001
          \na

     The largest number representable for the `i' and `I' formats is
     39999 (or -39999); UNIX `troff' uses `z' and `w' to represent
     10000 and 5000 in Roman numerals, and so does `gtroff'.
     Currently, the correct glyphs of Roman numeral five thousand and
     Roman numeral ten thousand (Unicode code points `U+2182' and
     `U+2181', respectively) are not available.

     If IDENT doesn't exist, it is created.

     Changing the output format of a read-only register causes an
     error.  It is necessary to first copy the register's value to a
     writeable register, then apply the `af' request to this other
     register.

 - Escape: \gI
 - Escape: \g(ID
 - Escape: \g[IDENT]
     Return the current format of the specified register IDENT
     (one-character name I, two-character name ID).  For example, `\ga'
     after the previous example would produce the string `000'.  If the
     register hasn't been defined yet, nothing is returned.