.BG
.FN format
.TL
Formatted Character Data
.CS
format(x)
.AG x
a vector of any atomic mode.
.RT
character vector.
The `format' function takes all elements of `x' and turns
them into character form using a common format, just as they
would be printed by the `pratom' function.
This ensures that all elements of the value have the
same number of characters and have decimal places aligned.
.PP
The function is useful for building custom output displays,
and is often used in conjunction with `cat' to print such displays.
.EX
.Si "format(2^seq(10))"
 [1] "   2" "   4" "   8" "  16" "  32"
 [6] "  64" " 128" " 256" " 512" "1024"
.KW print
.WR
