Spread for Winforms provides the ability to apply formatting to a cell value itself. This helps to retain the format string of the value throughout the calculation.

The GrapeCity.CalcEngine.IFormattedCellValue interface is used to set the value and format properties in a cell. It represents the value of a cell with a format string and allows the user to implement their own formatted cell value. The CalcEngine.FormattedCellValue class members can also be used to create an object instance to implement the feature.

The following code example shows how to implement formatting to a cell value instead of to a cell.

GrapeCity.Spreadsheet.IWorksheet TestActiveSheet = fpSpread1.AsWorkbook().ActiveSheet;

GrapeCity.CalcEngine.FormattedCellValue fmval = GrapeCity.CalcEngine.FormattedCellValue.Create(fpSpread1.AsWorkbook(), 123, "dd/mm/yyyy");
TestActiveSheet.Cells["A1"].Value = fmval;
TestActiveSheet.Cells["A2"].Formula = "A1"; // A2 show value same as A1 : 02/05/1900

Dim TestActiveSheet As GrapeCity.Spreadsheet.IWorksheet = FpSpread1.AsWorkbook().ActiveSheet

Dim fmval As GrapeCity.CalcEngine.FormattedCellValue = GrapeCity.CalcEngine.FormattedCellValue.Create(FpSpread1.AsWorkbook(), 123, "dd/mm/yyyy")

TestActiveSheet.Cells("A1").Value = fmval
TestActiveSheet.Cells("A2").Formula = "A1" ' A2 show value same as A1 : 02/05/1900

The following behavior should be noted when working with formatted cell values:

• It is not supported in Spread Designer or through ExcelIO.
• The formula textbox shows the editing value the same as the cell.
• Any cell type including customized cell types works with IFormattedCellValue as a normal IReadonlyPrimitiveValue.