I have a program that outputs a players Batting Average.

The Output var (BatAvg) is of Type Real.

When it prints the value of BatAvg to a file (or Screeen),
the format is as follows:

0.332

I can't figure out how to make the program chop off the zero
in front.

I have tried several formatting combinations, :4:3, :3:3, etc...
None seem to work.

Is there a bulit-in function that will chop off that zero for me?

WriteLn('.',(BatAvg*1000):3:0);

Of course if the batting average drops below .100 then the leading zeros
will be replaced by spaces: perhaps not what you wanted. You could
convert the number to a string:

Str(BatAvg:1:3,BatAvgStr);

Now you could do whatever you want with it. BatAvgStr will contain a
string version of what you don't want ("0.332"), but strings are easy to
manipulate. All we need to do now is remove the unwanted first
character.

Move(BatAvgStr[2],BatAvgStr[1],4);
Dec(BatAvgStr[0]);

In case you don't understand what just happened, the Move procedure
copies the last four characters to where the first is. The result
(".3322") is one character too long so the Dec procedure reduces the
length by one (".332"). BatAvgStr now contains the string representation
you want.

str(batavg, batstr);
batstr := copy(batstr, 2, 4);

BatAvg := 0.777777

Result...
  BatStr = 7.77

Remember that BatAvg is a Real and will manifest itself in exponential
notation unless you force it not to. Your first line should have been:

Str(BatAvg:1:3, BatStr);

Result...
  BatStr = .778

Notice here that the result was also rounded, which I believe is the
desired effect.

Incidentally, the solution I posted:

Str(BatAvg:1:3, BatAvgStr);
Move(BatAvgStr[2], BatAvgStr[1], 4);
Dec(BatAvgStr[0]);

runs almost twice as fast because the Copy involves reassigning a value
to BatStr while Move just moves the bytes around the existing variable.
Of course, the speed difference is probably of little concern in this
application.

In article <327E2B7D.2...@mdts3.mdhc.mdc.com>,

function CHOPFN (x : real; dd : byte) : string;
var s : string;
begin
  Str (x:0:dd, s);
  if x >= 0 then
    chopfn := Copy (s,2,255)
  else
    chopfn := '-' + Copy (s,3,255);
end;

begin
  writeln (CHOPFN(0.322,3));
end.

   All the best, Timo

"Alan M. Evans" <A.Michael.Ev...@airmail.net> wrote:

That's why I posted it....

Thanks for the help everyone!!

The variety of answers really helps.

Guess what we learned in class last night (Monday)...
How to work with and manipulate strings :)

So all your examples make perfect sense now.