Decision Making and Repetition with Reusable Objects - Java Programming: Comprehensive Concepts and Techniques - page 282

When used in a pattern for the DecimalFormat method, most characters,
both numeric and alphabetic, are taken literally — that is, they are unchanged
during formatting. On the other hand, special characters, such as those listed in
Table 4-17, stand for other characters, strings, or classes of characters; they are
replaced with the appropriate value when the method is called.

Table 4-17 Special Characters Used in Patterns

SYMBOL PATTERN LOCATION MEANING

0 Number Digit; zero shows as leading or trailing zero

# Number Digit; zero shows as absent

. Number Decimal separator or monetary decimal

separator

Number Minus sign 2

, Number Grouping separator

E Number Separates mantissa and exponent in scientific

notation

; Subpattern boundary Separates positive and negative subpatterns

% Prefix or suffix Multiply by 100 and show as percentage

Coding the paint() Method

Recall that the paint() method draws text in the applet window and displays
graphics and color. Figure 4-60 shows the code for the paint() method used in
the CommissionApplet program. Line 123 retrieves the image, dollarSign.gif;
line 124 draws the stored image in the applet.

120
121

public void paint ( Graphics g )

122 {

123 dollarSign = getImage ( getDocumentBase () , "dollarSign.gif" ) ;

124 g.drawImage ( dollarSign,12,28, this ) ;

125 }

FIGURE 4-60

The following step enters the paint() method in the applet.