[SOLVED] When to add "[%s]" to an item label

[iostreamz]

Greetings all,

I have noticed that some items and sitemap entries require a “[%s]” be added in the label section for it to work properly.

Can someone please explain when it is required and when it is not required as I have not been able to figure it out.

Thanks !

[RolfV (Rolf Vermeer)]

For this occasion I’m just referring to a post I made earlier today:

[SOLVED]Question aboute [%.1f °C], [%d %%], [%.3f kW]

What you are asking about is called String formatting. For example: [%.1f °C]: %.1f means that at that point a floating point number is to be filled in, with 1 digit after the decimal separator (the .), followed by the unit degrees Celcius in this case, but that could be anything. [%d %%]: %d means that a integer number is to be filled in there, and it should be followed by a percentage sign (%), but as the % is already a special character, it is escaped by adding another % in front of it. [%…

[mstormi (Markus Storm)]

%s displays the item value as a string (which only makes sense for string-type items).
It isn’t required but the only way to display the value in a sitemap (else it’s just displaying the rest as static text).
label= in sitemaps overrides what is set in the item definition, so you can do it there, too.

[iostreamz]

This answers my question, thank you both.

[mstormi (Markus Storm)]

Tick the solution checkmark please for others to find this thread.