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Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center
TextString
  • See Also
    • ToString
    • StringTemplate
    • InputForm
    • OutputForm
    • Short
    • WriteString
  • Related Guides
    • Converting between Expressions & Strings
    • Text Generation
    • Text Manipulation
    • String Manipulation
    • Notebook Document Generation
    • Working with Templates
    • See Also
      • ToString
      • StringTemplate
      • InputForm
      • OutputForm
      • Short
      • WriteString
    • Related Guides
      • Converting between Expressions & Strings
      • Text Generation
      • Text Manipulation
      • String Manipulation
      • Notebook Document Generation
      • Working with Templates

TextString[expr]

gives a human-readable string representation of expr.

Details and Options
Details and Options Details and Options
Examples  
Basic Examples  
Scope  
Options  
AssociationFormat  
BooleanStrings  
DateFormat  
ElidedForms  
ListFormat  
MissingString  
Properties & Relations  
Possible Issues  
See Also
Related Guides
Related Links
History
Cite this Page
BUILT-IN SYMBOL
  • See Also
    • ToString
    • StringTemplate
    • InputForm
    • OutputForm
    • Short
    • WriteString
  • Related Guides
    • Converting between Expressions & Strings
    • Text Generation
    • Text Manipulation
    • String Manipulation
    • Notebook Document Generation
    • Working with Templates
    • See Also
      • ToString
      • StringTemplate
      • InputForm
      • OutputForm
      • Short
      • WriteString
    • Related Guides
      • Converting between Expressions & Strings
      • Text Generation
      • Text Manipulation
      • String Manipulation
      • Notebook Document Generation
      • Working with Templates

TextString

TextString[expr]

gives a human-readable string representation of expr.

Details and Options

  • TextString converts expressions to a single string, formatting expressions with the following heads specially:
  • Stringformats unchanged
    Integer,Real,Rationalformats using decimal notation
    Quantityformats using decimal notation with unit
    DateObject formats according to DateFormat
    TimeObjectformats according to TimeFormat
    GeoPositionformats using degrees latitude and longitude
    Entityformats using CommonName
    Symbolformats using SymbolName
    Missing formats according to MissingString
    List formats elements, combining as specified by ListFormat
    Association formats keys and values, combining as specified by AssociationFormat
  • TextString[Row[list]] formats as a concatenation of elements of list.
  • TextString[Row[list,sep]] uses separator sep to combine formatted elements.
  • TextString[Column[list]] formats each element on a separate line.
  • TextString[TableForm[list]] formats a list of lists as space-separated columns.
  • Expressions that match patterns in the list given as the setting for ElidedForms are formatted in an elided way.
  • In other cases, expressions are formatted using InputForm.
  • TextString supports the following options:
  • AssociationFormatAutomaticformat to use when formatting associations
    BooleanStrings{"True","False"}strings to use for True and False
    DateFormat$DateStringFormatformat to use for dates
    ElidedFormsAutomaticlist of heads whose contents should be elided
    ListFormatAutomaticformat to use when formatting lists
    MissingString""string to use for Missing objects
    TimeFormatAutomaticformat to use for times
    TimeZone$TimeZonetime zone used to convert times before formatting

Examples

open all close all

Basic Examples  (3)

Convert an integer:

Convert a real number:

Convert a GeoPosition:

Convert a DateObject:

Convert a TimeObject:

Convert a Quantity:

Convert a list of elements:

Scope  (4)

By default, TextString converts certain built-in expressions to an elided string:

TextString recurses arbitrarily through lists and associations to convert an expression:

Typically, expressions that satisfy NumericQ are formatted as real numbers:

Row formats as a concatenation of its contents:

Column formats each element on a new line:

TableForm formats elements as a table in which columns are space-separated:

Options  (6)

AssociationFormat  (1)

By default, TextString formats associations as they normally appear in the Wolfram Language:

Use different delimiters:

BooleanStrings  (1)

By default, the symbols True and False format as themselves:

Specify different strings to use for the symbols True and False:

DateFormat  (1)

TextString uses the same default format as DateString:

Override the default date format:

ElidedForms  (1)

The default value ElidedForms->Automatic elides certain complex symbolic expressions:

Ordinary symbolic expressions are formatted normally:

Elide specific symbolic expressions:

Elide all symbolic expressions for which specific formatting rules do not exist:

ListFormat  (1)

By default, TextString formats lists as they normally appear in the Wolfram Language:

Use different delimiters:

MissingString  (1)

By default, expressions with head Missing are ignored:

Specify a different string:

Use the given reason, if available:

Properties & Relations  (1)

UpValues can be defined for custom objects to determine how they should be formatted by TextString:

Possible Issues  (1)

Nesting Row and Column expressions does not produce a table:

Use TableForm to produce a table:

See Also

ToString  StringTemplate  InputForm  OutputForm  Short  WriteString

Related Guides

    ▪
  • Converting between Expressions & Strings
  • ▪
  • Text Generation
  • ▪
  • Text Manipulation
  • ▪
  • String Manipulation
  • ▪
  • Notebook Document Generation
  • ▪
  • Working with Templates

Related Links

  • An Elementary Introduction to the Wolfram Language : String Patterns and Templates

History

Introduced in 2014 (10.0)

Wolfram Research (2014), TextString, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/TextString.html.

Text

Wolfram Research (2014), TextString, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/TextString.html.

CMS

Wolfram Language. 2014. "TextString." Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Wolfram Research. https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/TextString.html.

APA

Wolfram Language. (2014). TextString. Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Retrieved from https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/TextString.html

BibTeX

@misc{reference.wolfram_2025_textstring, author="Wolfram Research", title="{TextString}", year="2014", howpublished="\url{https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/TextString.html}", note=[Accessed: 30-November-2025]}

BibLaTeX

@online{reference.wolfram_2025_textstring, organization={Wolfram Research}, title={TextString}, year={2014}, url={https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/TextString.html}, note=[Accessed: 30-November-2025]}

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