default formatter

[adamhunter]

It would be nice to have a format_default method that, if defined, can be called to format columns. That may not be the best name as we'll have to avoid naming conflicts with column names.

[nathanl]

For consistency, you might consider moving away from the format_first_name style and making a format_column that mirrors format_header. For example, the user could do:

def format_column(column_name, value)
   case column_name.to_sym
   when :month, :location then value.capitalize
   when :weaksauce_secret then Base64.encode64(value)
   else formatter.number_to_currency(value)
   end
end

[adamhunter]

In some reports I've been moving the other way and doing a first_name_header method and using format_header as a dispatcher.

[adamhunter]

Though it would be nice to do

def format_column(name, value)
  case name.to_sym
  when :amount, :tax, :subtotal
    formatter.number_to_currency(value)
  else
    value
  end
end

One important thing to remember is that a default formatter like this would need to always return a value...

[nathanl]

One important thing to remember is that a default formatter like this would need to always return a value...

True. It would be helpful to raise an exception if it didn't.

[adamhunter]

The problem with that, is that sometimes you might not want it to return a value intentionally.

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 14, 2013, at 1:48 PM, Nathan Long notifications@github.com wrote:

One important thing to remember is that a default formatter like this would need to always return a value...

True. It would be helpful to raise an exception if it didn't.

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Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.

[nathanl]

Because you want the column to be blank? In that case, you could return an empty string; the exception would be raised if you returned nil.

[adamhunter]

Good point, returning nil should raise an exception.