Format Manager

Last modified by Aurelie Bertrand on 2026/07/16 10:01


Formats are used on measures and time dimensions (numeric values and dates) in data models and charts.

DigDash provides a set of formats of different types: Number, Date, Icon, Month, Percentage, and Alerter.

The Format Manager allows you to create new formats as well as edit existing ones.

Each format has at least one configuration, referred to as Default.
The format configuration can be broken down into language-specific configurations.

❗ Modifying or renaming a format affects all elements that use it.
Right-click on the format and select Dependency Analysis to display its scope of use, or use the Duplicate function.

Format_editor_en.png

Managing Formats

To create a new format:

  1. In the left panel containing the different format types, select the one you want to create (Number, Date, Icon, Month, Percentage, Time, or Alerter).
  2. Click the + button.
    ➡ The Format Name dialog box appears.
  3. Enter the Name of the format.
  4. In the Role dropdown list, select the role to which you want to restrict access to the function, or None to share it with all roles, then click OK. The field can also be used as a search bar in case of a large number of roles.
    ➡ The Default configuration tab then appears. The Default configuration will be applied to all languages unless you have specified a specific configuration for one or more languages. See the Specifying a specific format according to languages section for more details.
  5. Enter the format parameters as described in the format descriptions below.
  6. Click OK to save and close.

To duplicate a format:

  • Select the initial format and click the Duplicate button, then proceed as for creating a format.

To modify the displayed value (format name) in different languages:

  • Click the en_Translate_button.png button to access the Multilingual Edition interface and enter the displayed value for each language. See the Translating an object name page for more details.

To delete a format:

  • Select the format you want to delete, then click the en_Delete_button.png button.

ℹ Formats labeled (Default) cannot be deleted.

To rename a format:

  1. Select the format you want to rename, right-click, and choose Rename.
  2. Enter the desired format name, then click OK.

ℹ Formats labeled (Default) cannot be renamed.

You can also create, duplicate, delete a format, access multi-language editing, and perform a dependency analysis by right-clicking on the desired format. The dependency analysis tool allows you to visualize the format's usage.
Format_editor_context_menu_en.png

Specifying a specific format according to languages

You can use different formats depending on the language. For example, dates or numbers can have different formats depending on the language.

When you create a format, the Default configuration is selected. The default format will be applied to all languages unless you have specified a specific format for a language. It is the language of the format's usage context (for example, the language of a dashboard page with a stream containing a dimension to which the format is applied) that determines which configuration will be used: the context language's configuration, if it exists; otherwise, the default configuration.

Each configuration is displayed in a tab specific to each language, indicated by the language flag.
The available languages are those configured in the server settings. See the Languages page for more details.
When a language-specific configuration exists, the tab is marked with a checkmark ✓. Otherwise, the tab is grayed out and its tooltip reminds you that the configuration does not exist for that language.

en_1757667186126-540.png

When a specific configuration has been created for all languages, the default configuration is not used.

Format_editor_all_lang_configured_en.png

To specify a format for a given language:

  1. Select the tab for the language to configure.
  2. Click the link that appears on the page to edit.
    Format_editor_no_lang_configured_en.png
  3. Enter the format parameters as described in the format descriptions below.

To delete a language-specific configuration:

  1. Select the language tab.
  2. Click the en_1757668336917-592.png button in the toolbar.
    ➡ The default format will then be used for this language.

The Default configuration cannot be deleted.

Copying/pasting a format configuration

It is possible to copy a configuration and apply it to a format of the same type (e.g., Number).
To do this:

  1. Click the en_1757669318878-165.png button in the toolbar of the format configuration to copy.
  2. Select the desired format and configuration tab.
  3. Click the en_1757669510512-725.png button to apply the copied configuration.

Number Format

Selected ParameterDescription
Thousands Separator

Depending on the selected language, you can use a period or a comma as the thousands separator.

Example: if you use a period as the thousands separator, the value 10000 will be displayed as 10.000.

Decimal SeparatorSelect the period or comma as the decimal separator
Formatting Negative Numbers

Select the desired display type for negative values. 

Examples:

  • Unchanged: the value -5212 will be displayed as -5212
  • In parentheses: the value -5212 will be displayed as (5212)
  • Absolute value: -5212 will be displayed as 5212
Prefixing a positive number with the + signExample: 5212 will be displayed as +5212
Replace NaN valuesChoose the value you want to display if the value returned by the measure is not a number. Otherwise, the NaN (Not a Number) value will be displayed.

Maximum decimal number

Specify the desired number of decimals. If the value to display has more decimals than specified, the value will be rounded.

Check Force to display the specified number of decimals even if the value to display has fewer decimals.

Example: If you select 2 decimals and check the Force box, the value 8.2 will be displayed as 8.20, and the value 5.452 will be displayed as 5.45.

Non-significant ZerosSpecify the number of values to display before the decimal point.
Example: if you select 5 as the number of non-significant zeros, the number 8.25 will be displayed as 00008.25.
Unit

Choose the desired unit for the measure. The unit is placed after the displayed number. Check Before to display the unit before the value.

Example: if you enter € as the unit and check the Before box, the value 42 will be displayed as € 42

Value multiplierSpecify the value by which you want to multiply your number
ColorSelect the desired colors for displaying positive, negative, and zero values.
Use Abbreviations

Check this box to use numeric abbreviations (k for thousands, M for millions, G for billions)

Example: if you check the Use Abbreviations box, the value 5000 will be displayed as 5k

Date Format

Date formats are formed by juxtaposing alphabetic characters, each code representing a date unit that can be repeated between one and four times. A date format can be tested directly in the format editor.

Format CodeMeaningDisplay according to the number of occurrences of the format code
1234
Y / y

Year

y

displays the year on 4 digits

yy

displays the year on 2 digits

yyy

displays the year on 4 digits

yyyy

displays the year on 4 digits

M

Month

M

displays the month as a value between 1 and 12

MM

displays the month on two digits (value between 01 and 12)

MMM

displays the month on three letters like Jan, Feb, ..

MMMM

displays the month name like January, February, ...

Q / q

Quarter

 

Q

displays the quarter between 1 and 4

QQ

displays the quarter between 01 and 04

QQQ

displays the quarter between Q1 and Q4

QQQQ

displays the quarter between 1st quarter and 4th quarter

wWeek number in the year

w

on a maximum of two digits

ww

on a minimum of two digits [*]

www

on a minimum of three digits [*]

wwww

on a minimum of four digits [*]

WWeek number in the month

W

on a maximum of two digits

WW

on a minimum of two digits [*]

WWW

on a minimum of three digits [*]

WWWW

on a minimum of four digits [*]

dDay in the month

d

on a maximum of two digits, from 1 to 31

dd

displays the day on two digits, from 01 to 31

ddd

on a minimum of three digits [*]

dddd

on a minimum of four digits [*]

DDay in the year

D

on a maximum of two digits

DD

on a minimum of two digits [*]

DDD

on a minimum of three digits [*]

DDDD

on a minimum of four digits [*]

EDay of the week name

E

Abbreviated to three characters (Mon., Tue., Wed., Thu., ...)

EE

Abbreviated to three characters (Mon., Tue., Wed., Thu., ...)

EEE

Abbreviated to three characters (Mon., Tue., Wed., Thu., ...)

EEEE

Full name

eDay of the week

e

Day of the week number on one digit

ee

Day of the week number on two digits

eee

Abbreviated to three characters (Mon., Tue., Wed., Thu., ...)

eeee

Full name

aAM / PMDisplays AM before noon, PM after noon
H

Hour displayed from 0 to 23

H

on a maximum of two digits

HH

on a minimum of two digits [*]

HHH

on a minimum of three digits [*]

HHHH

on a minimum of four digits [*]

kHour displayed from 1 to 24

k

on a maximum of two digits

kk

on a minimum of two digits [*]

kkk

on a minimum of three digits [*]

kkkk

on a minimum of four digits [*]

KHour from 0 to 11 followed by AM for morning or PM for afternoon

 

on a maximum of two digits

 

on a minimum of two digits [*]

 

on a minimum of three digits [*]

 

on a minimum of four digits [*]

h
mminutes

m

on a maximum of two digits

mm

on a minimum of two digits [*]

mmm

on a minimum of three digits [*]

mmmm

on a minimum of four digits [*]

sseconds

s

on a maximum of two digits

ss

on a minimum of two digits [*]

sss

on a minimum of three digits [*]

ssss

on a minimum of four digits [*]

[*] preceded on the left by as many 0s as necessary

Icon Format

These formats can be used to visualize a trend or the achievement of a goal.
Three icon formats are created by default: Goal, Trend, and Trend (reverse).

Format_editor_icon_en.png

The list of icons used for each value type (Positive, Zero, Negative, and Invalid) is displayed on the left of the Format Editing section.
To modify these icons:

  • Drag and drop the desired icons from the list on the right to the rectangles on the left. A set of icons is provided by default. You can add your own icons by clicking the Add a custom icon Add icon icon.

The Table view button allows you to display a table view of the available icons.

Month Format

The Month format is used to associate a month with a numeric value (1= January,... 12 = December).

Percentage Format

The Percentage format is used to associate a percentage with a numeric value (example: 0.4567 = 45.67 %).

  1. Specify the desired number of decimals.
  2. Check the Force box to display the specified number of decimals even if the value to display has fewer decimals.
    For example, if you select 2 decimals and check the Force box, the value 0.823 is displayed as 82.30 %.
  3. Check the Decimal Separator box to enter the desired separator (by default, a period).
  4. Choose the value you want to display if the value returned by the measure is not a number. Otherwise, the NaN (Not a Number) value will be displayed.
    ➡ A preview of the resulting format is displayed below.

Format_editor_percent_en.png

Alerter Format

💡 See the tutorial Create and apply an Alerter for detailed usage examples.

The Alerter format is used to modify the display of values and highlight exceptional values by using text, colors, or icons. 

The alerter itself defines a list of alerters of the value or value range type.

  1. Click the  +  button above the alerters table.
    ➡ The Create a new alerter dialog box appears.
  2. In the Input Type section, select one of the offered choices:
    • Value: specify the value to format
    • Range: specify the range of values to format (Minimum and maximum). The "infinity" value is accessible via the small arrow to the right of the text field.
  3. In the Output Type section, select the desired display type:
    • Text: in the Value field, enter the text of your choice that will replace the value or value range in the display. You can also choose a Text Color and a Fill Color (text background).
    • Color: select at least one of the following options:
      • Format: to format a specific value or range differently. Select a format from the dropdown list or click the Edit button to define a format.
      • Text Color
      • Fill Color: text background color
    • Icon: Select an image.
      The Add a custom icon button Add icon allows you to add your own icons.
    • Color + Icon: combination of Color and Icon that allows displaying formatted text with an icon.

  Format_editor_alerter_en.png    1784188844136-811.png

Other Format

Under Other, you will find a surface format and 2 time formats. If you create custom formats, they are also listed here.

  • The Surface (are) format is used to associate a surface in centiares with a surface decomposed into hectares, ares, and centiares.

Since version 2024R1, this format uses a thousands separator. A surface is thus displayed in the format:
8 437 ha 54 a 23 ca (instead of 8437 ha 54 a 23 ca previously).

  • The Year(s) format is used to associate a time in seconds with a duration in the form of years, months, Days, hours, minutes, and seconds.
    For example, the value 70 will be displayed as 0:1:10 (1 minute 10 seconds), and the value 100000 will be displayed as 1d 3:46:40 (1 day 3 hours 46 minutes and 40 seconds)
     
  • The Hour(s) format is used to associate a time in seconds with a duration in hours, minutes, and seconds.

Related Page...