Possible to format measures and dimensions?

[#1]

I see that inside a visualization I can format a measure but....how do I format a measure in the master measures area?

For example if I have a rate % that I ALWAYS want as a percentage with 5 decimal places... how can I specify that?

I don't want people dragging it into a visualization then not seeing it as a 5th decimal place percentage (for example)?

Or money to the 4th decimal or a dimension that is always left aligned text even though it looks like an integer, etc, etc...

Thanks!

[rittermd]

Go to Edit.

Expand the Dimension or Measure and click on Number Formatting.

You can then then pick some options from the list or choose Custom and define your own.

[#3]

That seems to let me format the measures inside the visualization.

However, I want to format the measure inside the Master Items pane.

So I want to set it as Money for example so that the next time I drag the measure onto the design surface it retains the money formatting, I don't have to reformat it to money each and every time.

So when I go to EDIT it only seems to let me format the measure already inside a visualization.  It doesn't seem to let me update formatting for measures still in the Master Items area.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

There is no feature in the base product to format master dimensions or measures until they are used in a visualization.

[#5]

Thank you for the help.

Also... why in the world not?

I can't be the only person who would want this feature?

What do you do with common numbers like Percentage of Sales????  Does the end user have to reformat that each and every time they drag and drop it somewhere????

[Anonymous]

I don't know why Qlik didn't build it in, we would find it very useful too and as you say I'm sure lots of people would.  Hopefully it is something they will build in over time.

[Anonymous]

You could use a Num wrapper in your measure expression. So if you wanted your expression to be formatted to 5 decimal places you could do Num(Sum([Your Field]), '#,##0.00000') in your master measure expression. That way when you drag it into a visualization it should default to that format.

[vadimtsushko]

I would agree with Andrew. We use some modification of that approach both in our QlikView and Qlik Sense applications.

See my post about it blog.infovizion.ru /2014/01/dynamic-number-formatting-in-chart-expressions.-pros-and-cons/

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