Yeah, you can, place it in between single or double quotes. You may need to add some blanks to the strings to make sure the result is readable.
Equivalent expressions:
"Time is now " + $now
"Time is now {$now}"
Or as a value:
Time is now {$now}
You can use functions in values too, not just expressions. A value is an expression with implicit " " around it. Everything inside { } is treated as an expression of its own.
There are many functions, here are a couple:
format( value, format )
Lookup sprintf for how the format works.
format(“%.2f”, 12) should output 12.00
% is an argument placeholder (next argument)
.2 means two decimal points
f means float
if(condition, value1, value2)
If condition is true, value1 is returned, otherwise value2 is returned.
Expression example:
“It is " + if( ge( integer([Weather:wind]), 10 ), “very windy”, “pretty calm” ) + " outside”
The output would be either:
It is very windy outside
or
It is pretty calm outside
Depending on the wind value.
Break down:
[Weather:wind] returns the wind value of the Weather device
integer(value) converts that into an integer - your DTH returns a string…
ge(value, 10) returns true if value >= 10 or false otherwise
if(value, “very windy”, “pretty calm”) returns “very windy” if value is true, or “very calm” otherwise