Cannot do number formatting on only totals in a matrix

[aseagull]

Hello! I am trying to format the totals in my matrix (which are actually averages) to use a single decimal point. But I want the values to remain as whole numbers.

The formatting pane provides an option to do this, I think. Using the pane shown below, I can configure only the totals for color and alignment. But any changes to Display Units or Value Decimal Places change values and totals, not just totals. Even though "Apply to values" is turned off!

Does this behavior make sense? I feel like it should work as I feel it should work. Do I need to bake the formatting into my measure?

Thanks,

Amon

[DataInsights]

@aseagull,

That does seem odd. You're in the Specific column settings, right?

You can submit this issue at the link below:

https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Issues/idb-p/Issues 

[aseagull]

Yes, I'm sorry I cut that off! I've confirmed this in another report. Can you confirm this as well?

[DataInsights]

I confirmed this behavior in another report.

[aseagull]

Well, I brought this up to MS as a possible bug, and got a quick resolution! Apparently this is by design. I don't want to be too cheeky...but this feels like the kind of thing where the UI team and the whatever team were not on the same page. Like, "You put in a toggle to do WHAT??" might have been said in a meeting somewhere sometime. 

Here is the response from Microsoft:

I have checked internally and found that as per design, the values of the matrix are changing along with totals .

As you have selected  “Value = Score” and formatting is applied to Specific column ,the changes made are applicable to the values as well. So, it is showing results as intended.

("Score" is the name of the column in the Values field well of the matrix.) Honestly, I'm inclined to mark this thread resolved (as "will not fix"), but if someone can explain either (1) why this is desirable behavior or (2) how things are implemented under-the-covers that justifies this behavior, I would love it.

Thanks!
Amon

P.S. I solved this with FORMAT and ISINSCOPE, which almost works...except now that the values are text, they don't sort correctly.

[DataInsights]

@aseagull,

It seems unintuitive to offer the ability to specify different behavior at the Total and Values levels, yet apply the same behavior to both. Maybe I'm missing something. Thanks for following up and documenting the response!

[aseagull]

FYI, Microsoft sent me a followup that they are sending this to their escalation engineers. That was nice to hear.

[aseagull · Accepted solution]

Update: Microsoft has agreed! They don't call it a "bug", but have taken up a todo to update the UI so it makes clear what you can and cannot do. 

Separately, I dropped this question in our local user group and it made its way to a blog post, walking through the imperfect solution (with FORMAT and ISINSCOPE as I wrote above) and arriving at a complete solution via calculation groups. I'm looking forward to implementing that! I'd say this ticket is closed. Thanks for the feedback.

https://www.esbrina-ba.com/defining-different-formats-for-values-and-totals/