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BIRT - how do I force a column to output values in "Decimal"?

I can do that easily on an existing report by double-clicking a column that has no customized expression for it (i.e. dataSetRow["NAME_OF_COLUMN"]) but when I run into a column with a customized expression, I have no access to its data type, as double-clicking on it only opens the "Expression Builder" window.
Is there a way to somehow "cast" the result of the customized expression, or perhaps feed it into a function that does the conversion? I looked around the various options and settings, but found nothing related to my case.

To achieve the custom format for data, it is very helpful when you write Javascript which will format the column data dynamically.
There are other predefined methods are available which can be used to check if the value does not contains any decimal then you can add .00 to make decimal justified value.
If(!dataSetRow["NAME_OF_COLUMN"]).contains(".")) {
var xcustomeformat = dataSetRow["NAME_OF_COLUMN"]) + ".00";
}
Similary, if any value comes like 101.4 and you want out put as 101.40 then you can check the length of characters after decimal character and add additional ZEROs as needed.

Alternative Way to Pass Checkbox Array to $_GET - Besides Square Braces

I understand that if I use a checkbox value of name[], then I will receive a data array on the server (when using PHP), named 'name[]'. This has worked fine for me, but I'm running into some URL sizes that could cause issues with less robust IE browsers and all the encoded square braces are killing me in this area, easily causing the URL length to be at least 4-6 times longer than what it could possibly be, if another way were available. Is there a reliable method using javascript (jquery syntax even better) to intercept a checkbox forms values and convert them into something like this:
"&checkboxarray=1-23-45-13-67"
I figure that on the other end I can easily explode $_GET['checkboxarray'] into an actual array and go from there as I usually do with matching the selection array against the options array, etc... I just don't know if it's possible or how to create alter the submit process.
Side note, isn't passing "name[]" to a URL non-standards compliant anyways? Every browser I've used auto encodes it, but not Mozilla, however it seems to work fine.
EDIT: I need to create paginated links, which is why I'm using GET, instead of POST. This is also and industrial search, very comprehensive, lots of power user options.
UPDATE & Answer: I managed to come up with my own answer. For anyone else who wants to take advantage of $_GET's easy pagination workflow but you need to pass large data arrays and are worried about URL length, here's a simplistic way to compact it all down into one variable with dash separated values:
NOTE: I HIGHLY suggest you first make sure any dynamic arrays generated from queries start with 1 rather than 0 if your going to recheck values after submit, here's how, since 0 can be a real pain in the neck to work with in PHP conditional statements:
$your_array= array();
array_unshift($your_array,'');
unset($your_array[0]);
In your HTML code, set all checkbox input names to "something[]" and underneath this set of inputs, create a hidden input with the name "something", I suggest you make them match, but I suppose you could use another name, just make sure the hidden one is missing the square braces, also set the hidden input value to "":
<input type="text" name="something[]" value="1">
.....
<input type="text" name="something[]" value="20">
<input type="hidden" name="something" value="">
Javascript: NOTE, requires jquery... this grabs all the "something[]" input values and forms a dashed array while killing off "something[]" values from being submitted and only submitting "something".
$('#submitbutton').click(function(){
var searchIDs = $('input[name="something[]"]:checked').map(function(){
return $(this).val();
}).get();
var IDstring = searchIDs.toString();
var newvar = IDstring.replace(/,/g, '-');
$('input[name="something"]').val(newvar);
$('input[name="something[]"]:checkbox').prop("checked", false);
});
On the server side, simply explode the 'something' value from $_GET.
$somethingArray = explode('-',$_GET['something']);
There it is! Hope it helps someone in the future make their GET sent arrays more compact. Bonus: Avoids sending unsafe characters in the URL, Mozilla doesn't appear to auto encode square braces, at least not my version of it on Linux Mint ;)
Update:
I just implemented this code on a big country checkbox form with 284 possible selections. With my old code, even using 'c[]' as the name, my character count was around 3100 characters, with the new approach, my character count now rings in at just 1109. Worth the effort.

You can use POST instead of GET method.
GET has URL length limitations.
POST is useful in passing long data, e.g. an array in your case.
There is a default limit of POST method which is 2MB which is way higher than GET. If needed, it can easily be increased in php.ini file post_max_size 10MB.
Replace $_GET with $_POST in your script.

xPath in selenium with multiple premises in multiple node layers

I am having a little problem with xpath in seleniumdriver.
I would like an xpath locator to narrow down its selection via two variables using exact matching at different points of the node hiearchy. This part is done.
You may imagine my case as addressing a two dimensional array in the xml with xPath, with each dimension being given as the two variables I have in it(they are standard text searches via js variables, not xpath variables).
What I'm struggling with is the resulting construction does not tell the difference between the elements of the first dimension, so as long as the given variable value is one of the dimensions, it will address every element in the second dimension fine. I can not assume they are unique or they are in any order. I am using it for testing so this is not acceptable.
How can I form an expression that will not doesn't do the same mistake?
I have tried the 'and' expression but both selenium and xpath tools say the value is '1' for 'found' but it doesn't give me a node locator to work with.
Example, my structure looks similar, so addressing it properly by x1/y1 for example looks fine.
//x1//y1
//x1//y2
//x2//y3
//x2//y4
//x3//y5
//x3//y6
Should work, works ok.
//x1x//y1
//x1x//y2
//x2x//y3
//x2x//y4
//x3x//y5
//x3x//y6
(Giving nonexistent input as 1st dimension.) My input is not fault tolerant, I look for exact value so the tests fail here as they should.
//x2//y1
//x2//y2
//x3//y3
//x3//y4
//x1//y5
//x1//y6
DING, the locator finds y values here when it should not(the y vales are on different leaves of the node tree). I need help with this.
Here is the locator in question:
return element(by.xpath(".//div[#name='typeList']//div[.//text()='" + moduleName + "']//div[./text()='" + typeName + "']")).getText();
TypeList is the name of the owner element, it does not make any differnece if I remove it, but please keep it in mind when giving me examples.

In the end, it was indeed a syntactical problem, before the text keywords.
I was trying this
//div[./text()='Zero']//div[./text()='Number']
Instead, I needed something like this.
//div[.//text()='Zero']/div[.//text()='Number']
Apparently the first one does looks for 'Number' regardless the value of the first constraint as long as every is defined in my file(does not have to be in its upward xnode path.)
As a final note, I advise against using the chrome xpath helper as its behavior is near random, it gives different results after deleting and replacing the same expression. Ugh. The only other one for chrome is adware... I figured my result out by trial and error with the firefox xpath checker tool.
1, I ended up needing to additionally add an node upwards for the element for angular select ui tool(we use selectize.js, a searchable select box), else it was confused what to return, but this is unrelated to the original question as I tried that before with the original expression.
2, I also had to add a node between the first and second text search, else it would look for the second expression in the first one too, eg. looking for Number in Zero, and treat it like a valid value if found. The problem still occurs the other way around, this can be fixed too by applying additional type/name constraints in the first one(not in final example to save space).
So this is what I ended up with:
.//div[#name='typeList']//div/div[.//text()='Zero']/div/div/div[.//text()='Number']

How can I get Javascript to execute as a table is being built?

I have a table being built in HTML (using ASP), and it's stepping through a recordset. As it steps through the recordset, it creates a new row for the html table and fills it with data.
The problem I'm having is that it's using numbers that can be 10 or 11 digits long, and I want to format it with commas. I have a formatNumbers function that works excellently. However, basically what I need to do is this:
<td><script>formatNumber(<% = RS("total_rolled_lineal_ft")%>,0,0,true);</script></td>
I'm getting an Object Expected error. If we take a line from the executed HTML, here's what it looks like:
<td><script>formatNumber(10843537,0,0,true);</script></td>
Any clue what's causing my error, or, if I'm doing it completely wrong, how to fix it?
Also, formatNumber returns a string, in this case 10,843,537.

Thanks to #nnnnnn, I ended up using VB's FormatNumber() and came up with this
<% = FormatNumber(RS("total_rolled_lineal_ft"),0,true,true,true)%>, which works excellently.

I have never used straight ASP so maybe I am missing something in this answer.
Technically you can not execute Javascript while the ui is rendering, browsers tend to be a single threaded affair and will do one thing or the other.
But I would suggest that instead of binding the table directly to a record set you transform the record set into a ViewModel type class in the code behind.
You would then perform this conversion as you are building your ViewModel.

Why won't my function follow my if/else conditions?

Here's the fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/K5dsh/
I'm trying to make a simple calculator that evaluates the difference between the numbers its given, and gives an answer based on that. It has two problems:
1.) The answer my script gives is always the result of my 2nd else if statement, even if the input matches the conditions before it.
2.) The answer does not change even when there's a new input that should give a different result.
Does anyone see what the problems are? Thank you.

As Ivan pointed out, you're never updating the values of high, low and common with the values entered into the textboxes. You should be assigning the values inside the calculate function. See updated fiddle.
Also, you may want to invest some time into learning a framework like Knockout.js. It makes data-binding HTML form elements to JavaScript view models incredibly simple.

Your variables are defined only once. You should change it so that every time your button is clicked, it grabs the new variables. Here is an example: http://jsfiddle.net/Vd8n4/

Your values aren't being updated.
Here's how I would go about it. I'd change your function so that it starts off like this. That way, every time it is called, it updates the high, low, and common values.
function calculate() {
var high = document.getElementById('highRi').value;
var low = document.getElementById('lowRi').value;
var common = document.getElementById('comm').value;