Question regarding java.util.Formatter width

[Brandon Passanisi]

Hello core-libs-dev.  I am currently investigating the issues regarding 
the following bug:

    http://monaco.sfbay.sun.com/detail.jsf?cr=6178739

I have spent a good amount of time stepping through the simple 
TestFormat code supplied in the bug report.  I noticed some interesting 
behavior when running the following line in the test which throws the 
MissingFormatWidthException:

    System.out.printf("%0.4f\n", 56789.456789);

During the execution of this line, the Formatter class appears to treat 
the "0" not as a width value, which the author of the bug report 
intended, but rather as a flag value.  "0" is a valid flag value 
indicating that the result will be zero-padded.  But, in this case the 
author of the bug report intended to use the "0" as a width value, 
citing the Formatter specification text "The optional width is a 
non-negative decimal integer indicating the minimum number of characters 
to be written to the output.".  Using the "0" in this manner results in 
a MissingFormatWidthException.  Since "0" can be a flag value and also a 
width value, I am wondering if we have found some sort of gray area in 
the specification.

So, my questions are:

    1. Is there possibly some specification text that needs to be used
    to disallow "0" for a width value?
    2. Or, is a value of "0" allowed to be used for both a flag value
    and width value?
    3. If question #2 is true, can "0" be used for both a flag and a
    width value at the same time?  I ask this because the current
    behavior appears to not work when running the following line:

        System.out.printf("%00.4f\n", 56789.456789);

        run:
        Exception in thread "main"
        java.util.DuplicateFormatFlagsException: Flags = '0'
             at java.util.Formatter$Flags.parse(Formatter.java:4186)
             at
        java.util.Formatter$FormatSpecifier.flags(Formatter.java:2595)
             at
        java.util.Formatter$FormatSpecifier.<init>(Formatter.java:2664)
             at java.util.Formatter.parse(Formatter.java:2528)
             at java.util.Formatter.format(Formatter.java:2469)
             at java.io.PrintStream.format(PrintStream.java:970)
             at java.io.PrintStream.printf(PrintStream.java:871)
             at
        formatterwidthzero.FormatterWidthZero.main(FormatterWidthZero.java:18)

Thanks.
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Brandon Passanisi | Principle Member of Technical Staff

Oracle Java Standards Conformance

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