Setting Custom Data Format in OBIEE Answers
Sometimes it is necessary to display numeric values in specified format
or replace the null values in table or pivot table with zeros or custom
text. OBIEE Answers and Dashboards give us a possibility to customize
the data masks for presentation. This could be useful when we want to
change the display of data for the purpose of a given report. Using
Custom Data Format feature we can change the masks for numeric values,
change the display of null values or show dates in custom format. In
this article I will provide some examples on how to deal with custom
data formatting for numeric values, dates and null values.
Introduction:
Using custom data format we can specify
the custom formatting of columns used in an analysis. This formatting
will be applied in report’s tables and pivot tables. To edit a data
format for a given column, right click on it and choose Column
Properties.
Custom Data Format for numeric values:
Click on Data Format tab and check Override Default Data Format. Select Treat Number As Custom from the list.
Here are some examples of using custom numeric masks:
- We can display the values in thousands with K (kilo) letter
#,#.0,K
- Values in millions with M
#,#.0,,M
- Values in billions with B
#,#.0,,,B
- Add a currency symbol
£# or $#
Explanation:
‘#’ is a number sign indicating significant digits
‘#,#’ adds a comma separator for thousands
‘.0’ indicates the number of decimal places (‘0’ for round number, ‘.0’ for one decimal place, ‘.00’ for two, etc.)
‘,’ is a thousands separator (‘,’ for thousands; ‘,,’ for millions, ‘,,,’ for billions etc.)
‘K’,’M’,’B’, ‘$’,‘£’ are characters that can be added after or before the number mask
The syntax for custom data formatting for numeric values is:
positive value mask ; negative value mask ; null mask
If we specify the mask without semicolon, the changes will apply to both positive and negative values.
- We can indicate positive values with plus sign (+) and negative values with minus sign (-)
+ #,#.0;- #,#.0
Custom Data Format for dates:
By default the date is displayed as it is specified in user’s locale definition file which contains setting for displaying language, date format etc. We can change that using Custom Data Formatting.
Change the Custom Date Format to DD-MMM-YYYY. The results are displayed as following: 
We can separate the date using characters such as slash (/) or hyphen (-).Here is a short list of formats used for date display
.
Dealing with null values in numeric fields:
Using Custom Data Format we can also
specify what should be shown instead of null values. As we’ve seen
before, the sytax for custom data format for numeric values is positive
value mask; negative value mask; null mask.
For showing zeros (0) instead of nulls:
#,#.0;-#,#.0;0
(which can be read as: number with one
decimal place for a positive value, minus sign (-) and number with one
decimal place for a negative value, zero (0) for a null value)
The null values will be replaced with zero.
Instead of zero we can add a custom text like ‘Not available’ or ‘No data’:
#,#.0;-#,#.0;No data
The null values will be replaced with ‘No data’ text.
Dealing with null values in text fields:
For text values the syntax for custom text format is non-null value mask, null value mask.
Set Custom Text Format to: @;No description
The null values will be replaced with ‘No description’ text.
Conclusion:
Using Custom Data Format gives us the possibility to change the display of columns in tables and pivot tables in reports where default data format is not suitable. By applying small changes in data masks we can enhance the presentation of data in a report.
