Change the format of data in a view

You can set the format of data in a view, overriding existing formatting in a dimension. A number of built-in formats are available, or you can specify a custom format.

Note: Data in a view is displayed in accordance with your browser locale setting that uses the decimal and thousands separators for your locale. You can double-click a cell to view the raw data value as it exists on the Planning Analytics database, which uses a period as the decimal separator and omits a thousands separator. The raw value might include more decimal places than are displayed in the cell. When you enter data directly in a cell, you must use the decimal separator for your browser locale.

When you set the format in the view, the raw data format or cell data type is not changed. You can reset the format in the view to the underlying raw data format by selecting Use database format.

Note: If you're using the Format manager in Planning Analytics Workspace 2.0.94, you can reset a format in the view by restoring it to default.

Formats that are saved to a view in IBM® Planning Analytics Workspace are not available if the view is opened in IBM Planning Analytics for Microsoft Excel.

Generally, when more than one format is set in a view, the format that is applied to a cell is determined in the following order of precedence:

The column member inner to outer axis (column dimension in the overview, from right to left).
The row member inner to outer axis (row dimension in the overview, from right to left).
Formatting that is applied to the entire view from the format button.
In Planning Analytics Workspace, it's the Format manager button on the application toolbar.
Context dimensions in the overview, from right to left.
Bench dimensions from bottom to top.

There are some unique format interactions in the case of column or row formatting versus entire view formatting. When you apply view formatting, it overrides all column or row formatting. However, any column or row formatting that is applied after the view formatting is applied will take precedence, in accordance with the order of precedence previously described.

You can have two copies of the same view and apply different formatting to each view. For example, you have a view of a bank in Canada that shows Total Current Assets in thousands. You can make a duplicate of this view, and change it to show worldwide bank data. When you duplicated the view, the formatting was the same in the copy. But you can change the formatting in the copy to show the Total Current Assets in millions.

The built-in formats are:

General: Displays numbers without commas to separate digits to the left of the decimal point. Negative values are prefixed with a minus sign (-).; -1234.57
Fixed: Displays numbers without commas to separate digits to the left of the decimal point. Negative values are surrounded by parentheses.; (1234.57)
Comma: Commas separate every third digit to the left of the decimal point.; (1,234.57)
Rounded: Commas separate every third digit to the left of the decimal point, rounded up to the nearest whole number. You can see the actual value by right-clicking in the cell.; (12,346)
Percentage: Multiplies numbers by 100 and displays a following percent sign (%). Digits to the left of the decimal point do not use commas, and negative values are prefixed with a minus sign (-).; -123456.70%
Scientific: Displays numbers in scientific notation. Scientific notation is a way of expressing large or small numbers. For example, the number 123,000,000,000 can be written as 1.23E+11.; Negative values are prefixed with a minus sign (-).; -1.2E+3
Accounting: Displays numbers with currency symbols and decimal points in a column. Negative values are surrounded by parentheses.; $(1,234.57)
Currency: Displays numbers with the currency symbol that is specified for your computer. Commas separate every third digit to the left of the decimal point. Negative values are surrounded by parentheses.; ($1,234.57)
Currency (rounded): Displays numbers with the currency symbol that is specified for your computer. Commas separate every third digit to the left of the decimal point, rounded up to the nearest whole number. You can see the actual value by right-clicking in the cell. Negative values are surrounded by parentheses.; ($1,235)
Date: Gives you a date picker, and displays dates in a predefined format: mm/dd/yyyy.; 01/23/1989
Time: Displays time in a predefined format: hh:mm:ss.; 12:30:00

Thousands

Displays thousands as K.

12K

Millions

Displays millions as M.

12M

Short abbreviations

Depending on how large the number is, it's shortened by using a locale-specific abbreviation. In English, it's K for thousands, M for millions, B for billions, and T for trillions. The following table shows examples of abbreviated values in English.

Value	Abbreviated value
150	150
1500	1.5K
1500000	1.5M
1500000000	1.5B
1500000000000	1.5T
1500000000000000	1,500T

Other locales don't follow the same pattern.

Note: The Thousands and Millions options use the K and M abbreviations for all locales.

You can also format string headers and data cells in a view to wrap text. You can wrap multi-line text in data cells with or without line breaks.

Note: The wrap text feature in data cells is only supported for text that is entered using the text editor (press F2 or click the pencil icon in the cell).