Changing the Way Data is Formatted in a Classic Designer Report

Change the way values in your report columns are formatted using the Column Properties dialog box in the Designer module. You can change:

Decimal places
Percentage
Currency symbols
Text suffixes such as M for millions, etc.
Date/time formats

Tip: Currency and date formatting also depends on the user's language locale setting. See Changing the Language.

Column properties Format options depend upon the type of data used by the column. You can:

Change the format of numeric data
Change the format of date/time data
Change an integer value to a time format. See TO_TIME_FORMAT.

To change the format of numeric data displayed in a Designer report

In Designer, click the column header and select Column Properties.

The Column Properties dialog box shows the current format for the column in the Format field.

For example, when the column uses a numeric measure, Designer lets you type in a text-based representation of the data.

Change the format specified in the Format field to the format you'd like to use.

For numeric measures:

Use any combination of # or 0. # drops zeros after the decimal; 0 forces significant digits.

Place a % at the end to have your values appear as a percentage (automatically multiplies by 100).

Place a K or M at the end or any other text as desired.

Place a currency symbol ($, €, £ etc.) at the beginning to represent a currency value.

Remove the .## to suppress decimal values.

For example, add a $ at the beginning to show this is a Dollar currency value and remove .## at the end so that decimal values are not displayed.

Click Save. Designer applies the new formats. For example, Revenue displays in US Dollars with no decimals.

To change the format of date/time data displayed in a Designer report

In Designer, click the date column header and select Column Properties.

Change the format specified in the Format field to the format you'd like to use.

For a date-based measure Designer shows a dropdown menu of format options.

For a date or date/time column, select an option from the menu.

Tip: Use the locale-based (short) option to display the shortened version of the date format that matches your User Settings Language/locale. See Changing the Language.

Click Save. Designer applies the new formats. For example, the Date column format is the short version of the English (United Kingdom) locale.