Change the Data Format

You can use predefined formats to change the appearance of numbers, dates, and times without changing the underlying data. For example, you can show a date in abbreviated format or spell out the day and month in long format.

If you use an SAP BW data source, units of measure are included in the same column as the data values, separated by one space. For example, Celsius and Fahrenheit notations are appended to the end of the value. This format is maintained in IBM® Cognos® Analytics and appears in IBM Cognos Query Studio.

Note that an asterisk character (*) designates an unknown unit of measure, such as a mixed currency calculation or rollup. Mixed currency values occur when you calculate values with different currencies.

This behavior occurs when you are using an IBM Cognos cube or SAP BW as a data source.

Data Format Description

Default

The default format removes any report item formatting.

Number

Use the number format to

  • change the number of decimal places
  • specify whether to use a thousands separator
  • choose different symbols to represent negative numbers
  • scale large numbers

Currency

You can choose from many world currencies. Use either the currency symbol or the international code. For example the currency symbol for the euro is € and the international code is EUR.

You can also change the number of decimal places, specify whether to use a thousands separator, choose different symbols to represent negative numbers, and scale large numbers.

Percentage

This format shows a number multiplied by 100, using two decimal places and a percent sign. For example, 0.7356 appears as 73.56%.

Scientific

This format shows a number in exponential notation. For example, the number 224,110 is 2.24110E+05 in scientific notation.

Date and Time

You can choose from a list of date and time formats, including the 12 or 24 hour clock.

Procedure

  1. Open a report in Query Studio.
  2. Click the heading of the report item you want to format.
  3. From the Edit Data menu, click Format Data and then click one of the following:
    • To format numeric data, in the Category box, click a type and define the format as required.
    • To format text data, in the Category box, click Text and type a number in the Number of visible characters box.
    • To format date and time data, in the Category box, click a type and then in the Type box, click a format.
  4. Click OK.