The first asterisk in the body of an edit word also ends zero suppression. Subsequent asterisks put into the edit word are treated as constants (see “Constants” below). Any zeros in the edit word following this asterisk are also treated as constants. There can be only one end-zero-suppression character in an edit word, and that character is the first asterisk or the first zero in the edit word.
If an asterisk is used as an end-zero-suppression character, all leading zeros that are suppressed are replaced with asterisks in the output. Otherwise, the asterisk suppresses leading zeros in the same way as described above for “Zeros”.
| Edit Word | Source Data | Appears in Edited Result as: |
|---|---|---|
| '* . ' | 000000123 | * 1.23 |
| ' * . ' | 000000000 | ******0.00 |
| ' * . **' | 000056342 | ****563.42** |
Note that leading zeros appearing after the asterisk position are output as leading zeros. Only the suppressed leading zeros, including the one in the asterisk position, are replaced by asterisks.