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Publication date: 06/21/2023

Numeric Formats

For numeric columns, the Format menu appears in the Column Info window. Specify the format to tell JMP how to display numbers in the column. For all format options, you can specify the number of total characters that you want the cells in the column to accommodate. See Specify Width.

For descriptions of the format options, see Numeric Format Options.

Tip: To add commas to values that equal a thousand or more, select the Use thousands separator option. You must account a space for each comma in the Width box, or else they might not appear. This option is available for the Best, Fixed Dec, Percent, and Currency formats.

Specify Width

When you specify a number in the Width field, be sure to include the total number of possible characters. Characters include: numbers, decimal points, commas, and currency symbols.

Numeric Format Options

Choose from the following numeric format options:

Best

Allows JMP to consider the precision of each cell value and select the best way to show it. By default, the physical width of the column is 12 characters.

Fixed Dec

Shows all values in the column rounded to the number of decimal places that you specify.

To see only whole numbers, set the number of decimal places to zero.

If the number of integers following the decimal point is smaller than the number of decimal places that you specify, zeros are added to reach the number of decimal places. For example, if the value is 1.23 and you type 5 in the Dec box, JMP shows the number with five decimal places: 1.23000.

Percent

Multiplies numeric values by 100 and shows the number followed by a percent sign.

PValue

Shows probability values. The default value of the width is 12. If a number is less than 0.0001, the number is displayed as <.0001. The format is mostly used in JSL scripts and rarely needed for a data table column.

Scientific

Shows a number in standard scientific notation. If you enter the number 123456, it appears as 1.23456e+5. Select Dec to show the decimal points and enter the number of points.

Engineering

Similar to Scientific, but the exponent is always a multiple of 3 and the Dec field represents significant digits.

Engineering SI

Same as Engineering, but the exponent is replaced with an SI symbol.

Precision

Rounds the number to a given number of significant digits. Specify the number of significant digits in the Dec field.

Currency

Formats values with two decimal positions, thousands separators, and the currency sign that is specified in your computer’s locale settings. The default width of the Currency format is 15. If you have a number that requires a wider field width, the format defaults to the Best format. Once assigned, the currency symbol appears in the column and in graphs that contain the column.

Date

Shows all values in the column as a date. See Date Formats.

Time

Shows all values in the column as a specific instance in time, such as 12/2/03 at 2:23 PM. See Time Formats.

Duration

Shows all values in the column as a duration of time, such as hours, minutes, and seconds.

:day:hr:m, :day:hr:m:s

Shows a duration of time, such as 52:03:01:30, or fifty-two days, three hours, one minute, and thirty seconds.

hr:m, hr:m:s, min:s

Shows a duration of time, such as 17:37, or seventeen hours and thirty-seven minutes.

Geographic

Shows latitude and longitude number formatting for geographic maps. Latitude and longitude options include the following:

DDD

Degrees

DMM

Degrees and minutes

DMS

Degrees, minutes, and seconds

In each format, the last field can have a fraction part. You can specify the direction with either a signed degree field or a direction suffix. To show a signed degree field, such as -59°00'00", deselect Direction Indicator. To show the direction suffix, such as 59°00'00" S, select Direction Indicator.

To use spaces as field separators, deselect Field Punctuation. To use degrees, minutes, and seconds symbols, select Field Punctuation.

Custom

Enables you to define a custom format for a numeric column, including customization of column width and number of decimal places. Select Custom, click Set Custom Format, and define the format in the Formula Editor window. For example, if you don’t want to display the percentage sign next to a number, select this option and multiply the number by 100. This is an alternative to selecting the Percent format. Or if your data is in meters and you want to show it in kilometers with the unit, add the formula Char(:value / 1000) || " km". You might also want to apply a date/time format that isn’t available in the Format Date or Time lists, such as D/M/Y.

Format Pattern

Enables you to customize the date-time formatting of numeric values. See Customize Date-Time Formats with Format Patterns for details.

Date Formats

When you choose a Date format, you can also specify an Input Format. The Date format indicates how the date appears in the data table cells, and the Input Format indicates how you enter the date.

If you assign a date format to a numeric column that already contains data, then the numeric values are treated as the number of seconds since January 1, 1904. For example, if you have a numeric column with a cell value of 1,234,567,890 and you change the format to Date > m/d/y, the cell value appears as 02/13/1943.

The examples in Table 5.1 use the date of December 31, 2004.

Table 5.1 Date Formats

Format

Appears As

m/d/y

12/31/2004

mmddyyyy

12312004

m/y

12/2004

yyyyQq

2004Q4

d/m/y

31/12/2004

ddmmyyyy

31122004

ddMonyyyy

31Dec2004

Monddyyyy

Dec312004

y/m/d

2004/12/31

yyyymmdd

20041231

yyyy-mm-dd

2004-12-31

Date Long

Friday, December 31, 2004

Date Abbrev

Dec 31, 2004

Locale Date

Varies based on local OS setting. Here is an example: in the United States, the local OS setting is mm/dd/yyyy (12/31/2004).

Note: To change how a date appears in a graph without changing how it appears in a data table, see Change the Numeric Format of an Axis.

Time Formats

When you choose a Time format, you can also specify an Input Format. The Time format indicates how the time appears in the data table cells, and the Input Format indicates how you enter the time.

You can add the number of hours, minutes, and seconds after midnight of the prepended date for the following date formats:

m/d/y

d/m/y

y/m/d

ddMonyyyy

Monddyyyy

Locale Date

For example, December 31, 2004 has a numeric value of 3,187,296,600, which represents 12/31/2004 12:10 AM.

:day:hr:m and :day:hr:m:s show the number of days, hours, minutes, and seconds since January 1, 1904. For example, the results for December 31, 2004 are :36890:00:10: and :36890:00:10:00.

h:m:s and h:m show the hours, minutes, and seconds portion of the date in the date field. For example, the results for December 31, 2004 at 12:10 AM are 12:10:00 AM and 12:10 AM.

yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm and yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss show the year, month, day, and time. For example, 2004-12-31T12:10:00. T is a literal value, representing itself.

Note: To change how a time appears in a graph without changing how it appears in a data table, see Change the Numeric Format of an Axis.

Customize Date-Time Formats with Format Patterns

Format patterns are strings that define a date-time format, such as <YYYY></><MM></><DD> <hh><:><mm><:><ss><ampm>. The parts of the pattern in angle brackets are called field descriptors. The field descriptors represent a value (such as <YYYY>, which is a four-digit year) or other date-time text (such as </>, which is a locale-specific date separator).

A format pattern enables you to build formats that aren’t provided in JMP. These formats can be used for both formatting and inputting data. You can type the pattern yourself, use a built-in format as a starting place, or select field descriptors from a list.

You can use format patterns anywhere built-in date-time formats can be selected.

Build a Format Pattern

1. Create a numeric column in a data table.

2. Right-click the column and select Column Info.

3. Select Format Pattern from the Format list.

4. Click Set Format Pattern.

5. To use a built-in format as a starting place, select Builtins, select a date-time format, and then edit the format.

6. To edit the format, type the field descriptors in the Format Pattern field, or select a format pattern from the Field Descriptors list.

7. Click OK.

Build an Input Format Pattern

1. In an existing numeric column, right-click and select Column Info.

2. Select Format Pattern from the Format list, and then deselect Use Output Format.

3. Click Set Format Pattern.

4. Build the pattern as described in the preceding task.

Notes:

Some formats cannot be used for input. For example, when a variable-length number field descriptor is followed immediately by another number, some dates are ambiguous. The format <YYYY><M><D> cannot process input because <M> is a single digit month; dates such as 2020111 would be ambiguous. It’s unclear whether the date is Jan 11 or Nov 1.

ISO date formats were previously parsed as non-ISO YMD formats, and the opposite was also true. Now YMD date formats are compatible with each other; you can paste one YMD date into a column that is formatted using another YMD date.

International Formats

If you are importing or entering data that contains formatting specific to country standards, you might need to make sure that your number formats are interpreted correctly. On Windows, access the Control Panel’s region and language option, and select the country for which the number should be formatted. On macOS, from the Apple menu, select Language & Region > Formats, and select the correct country. On later versions of macOS, this option may appear under System Preferences > Language and Region.

Want more information? Have questions? Get answers in the JMP User Community (community.jmp.com).