Number formats

Number formats

This page describes which number formats are encountered in the various route and train files and how to adhere to them.

■ Contents

↷ 1. Overview
↷ 2. Integers
↷ 3. Floating-point numbers
↷ 4. Times
↷ 5. Color values

■ 1. Overview

Within the route and train files, you will encounter numbers like integers or floating-point numbers all the time, occasionally also others. These numbers are required to adhere to a certain format, which is described in the following sections.

There are two parsing methods for numbers: Strict and Loose. The Strict method is a very tight specification which does not leave space for making typographic mistakes. This method is used in all new file formats. The Loose method is a legacy parsing model required for compatibility with older material. The different files as presented on the Developing for openBVE pages indicate which model is being used. Note that whenever a Loose model is permitted, you can also use the Strict formats as Strict forms a subset of Loose.

■ 2. Integers

Strict: Permitted is any sequence of at least one decimal digit in the range from 0 to 9 (U+0030 - U+0039), optionally prepended by a negative sign (U+002D). The resulting character sequence may include leading or trailing white spaces.

	Examples for Strict* integers:*
▶	`0 123 -98`

Loose: All white spaces are removed from the character sequence first. Then, the remaining character sequence (abcde) is interpreted according to the Strict model. If this fails to create a valid number, the last character is dropped from the sequence (abcd) and then, the sequence is tested again. This continues until a valid number is produced or until no character remains, after which the character sequence is determined to be an invalid number.

	Examples for Loose* integers:*
▶	`123 77 11 -987x456`

	The interpreted integers from the preceding examples are:
▶	`123 7711 -987`

■ 3. Floating-point numbers

Strict: Permitted is any sequence of at least one decimal digit in the range from 0 to 9 (U+0030 - U+0039), optionally interleaved by exactly one decimal separator in form of the period (U+002E), optionally prepended by a negative sign (U+002D). The resulting character sequence may include leading or trailing white spaces.

	Examples for Strict* floating-point numbers:*
▶	`123 123. 123.0 123.456 0.456 .456 -123.456`

Loose: All white spaces are removed from the character sequence first. Then, the remaining character sequence (abcde) is interpreted according to the Strict model. If this fails to create a valid number, the last character is dropped from the sequence (abcd) and then, the sequence is tested again. This continues until a valid number is produced or until no character remains, after which the character sequence is determined to be an invalid number.

	Examples for Loose* floating-point numbers:*
▶	`-123 . 456 987,333`

	The interpreted floating-point numbers from the preceding examples are:
▶	`-123.456 987`

Legacy: Permitted is any of the following sequences:


▶	`hhh.mmss hhh.mms hhh.mm hhh.m hhh`

In these sequences, hhh denotes any sequence of at least one decimal digit to indicate the hour, mm denotes the two-digit minute part, m denotes a one-digit minute part, ss denotes a two-digit second part, s denotes a one-digit second part, and the character to separate the hours from the minutes is the period (U+002E). All digits need to be characters from 0 to 9 (U+0030 - U+0039). Leading or trailing white spaces are ignored. The total time is determined via the following formula, resulting in seconds since midnight:

	Seconds since midnight for a given time:
ƒ	`3600hhh + 60mm + ss`

If minutes or seconds are not indicated, they are assumed to be zero. You can use any non-negative hour, including values greater than or equal to 24. If, for example, a station arrival time is 23:59:00 (day 1), and the arrival time of the following station is 00:02:15 (day 2), then use the following sequences to represent these times in order to ensure a chronological order:

	Examples for times:
▶	`23.5900 24.0215`

■ 5. Color values

Hexcolor: A six-digit hexadecimal number is preceded by a number sign character (U+0023). An individual hexadecimal digit can be comprised of the decimal digits from 0 to 9 (U+0030 - U+0039), the lowercase letters from a to f (U+0061 - U+0066) and the uppercase letters from A to F (U+0041 - U+0046). The hexcolor has the following form:


▶	`#RRGGBB`

In this sequence, RR represents the red component, GG the green component and BB the blue component. Each component ranges from 00 to FF (0 - 255), where 00 represents no contribution for that channel and FF full contribution.

Commonly used colors (to indicate transparency) include:


▶	`#000000 (black) #FF0000 (red) #00FF00 (green) #0000FF (blue) #00FFFF (cyan) #FF00FF (magenta) #FFFF00 (yellow) #FFFFFF (white)`