List Format Column Properties and Formatting Options

You can edit properties for a list column to control the appearance and layout of a column and its contents. Table 17 contains format options and descriptions.

This section contains the following topics:

Editing the Layout of Column Contents

Use the Column Format tab of the Column Properties dialog box to perform the following tasks:

  • Specify whether the column should appear in results. Columns are usually visible in results by default. However, you may want to include a column in your request that is not displayed in the results, such as a column used in creating a filter.
  • Assign alternate table and column headings and apply custom formatting to them. You can also use functions and conditional expressions to format results in a variety of ways. Your selections apply only to the contents of the column for the request with which you are working.

To hide a column in report results

  1. From Oracle BIEE application, navigate to New - List Format.
  2. In the List Format designer, click the properties button for a column.

    Table 17 contains format options and descriptions.

  3. In the Column Properties dialog box, in the upper-right corner, select the Hide Column check box.
  4. Click OK.

To create or change custom table and column headings

  1. From Oracle BIEE application, navigate to New - List Format.
  2. In the List Format designer, click the properties button for a column.

    Table 17 contains format options and descriptions.

  3. In the Column Properties dialog box, in the Headings area, click the Custom Headings check box and perform the following steps:
    1. To add a custom table heading and column heading name, enter new names in the Table Heading and Column Heading fields.

      The custom heading is used in this request instead of the default heading.

    2. To prevent a table name to appearing in the heading, use a blank name for the Table Heading field.
    3. To change the format of the table heading or column heading, In the Column Format area, click the edit format button next to the Table Heading or Column Heading field.
  4. In the Column Format area, complete the appropriate fields using Table 17 as a guide.
  5. To control the way the data displays, in the Data Format area, select the Override Default Data Format check box and complete the appropriate fields.
  6. Click OK.
Table 17. Column Properties Formatting Options
Format Option
Description

Alignment (for fixed width only)

Justifies the value in the column relative the right and left boundaries of the column. The options are Left Justify, Center Justify, and Right Justify.

Casing

Casing controls how capitalization is used in the selected column. The following are casing options with examples in parentheses:

  • Upper case (UPPER CASE)
  • Lower case (lower case)
  • Title case (Title Case)
  • Sentence case (Sentence case)
  • No casing (data is not modified from its original form)

Default Value

If you enter a default value in the Properties dialog box, if the selected column has an empty value for a row, the default value is inserted.

Headings

Headings display as the first row in the file when you select Include Column Headers in the List Format options page. By default, the heading is Presentation_Table_Name.Presentation_Column_Name.

For a column, you can provide a custom name for the table and column portions of the column header.

Hide

If you check this option, the column does not appear in the contents of the file. However, a hidden column can be used for sorting, splitting and shuffling.

Override Default Data Format

Overrides the default display characteristics. In the column Properties dialog box, the selections that appear vary based on the data type. For example, if the column contains numeric data, you can choose formatting options, such as percentages, month names, or dates. You can choose the number of decimal places to display, how to display negative numbers, the number of digits to show, and the thousands separator to use.

To use a custom format for text, choose Custom Text Format from the drop-down list, and then enter the custom format.

To create a custom numeric format, you can use the number sign (#) to include significant digits, and the number zero (0) to include as many digits as specified, even if the number does not contain that detail as shown in the following examples:

Specifying ##.# shows 12.34 as 12.3

Specifying ##.000 shows 12.34 as 12.340

Shuffle Forward

The shuffle forward option makes a column eligible to be moved to the left whenever the column to the left of the shuffled column is empty. For example if Column 1 has an empty value for a row and Column 2 is enabled for Shuffling, the value in Column 2 is written to Column 1.

If multiple columns adjacent to the shuffled column (to the left) are empty, the shuffled value slides as far to the left as possible.

Width (for fixed width only)

Width specifies the maximum number of characters that can be entered in the column.
  
 

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