Skip to main content
cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Enhance your career with this limited time 50% discount on Fabric and Power BI exams. Ends September 15. Request your voucher.

Reply
raymondxie
Helper II
Helper II

How to change column format?

In my data source I have varchar field with the content of a serial number, power bi shows it as scientific number automatically, how can I change it back to text? e.g. "123456789" is displayed as 1.23456789e+008, I tried to change its format to General but it doesn't seem to take it, maybe there is some other way to change it?

 

I also have a date field where the PowerBI automatically splits it into Year, Quarter, Month and Day, I only want to show it in one column like: 2016-10-26, is there a way to hide/display column?

 

How can I adjust the order of the columns?

 

 

Thanks.

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Hi @raymondxie,

 

Using this formula: Column = format('TableName'[ColumnName],"###-###-###") , you can format the field to display as "xxx-xxx-xxx". But you should note that the data type of this field will be changed to Text rather than number.

 

Besides, it is not allowed to format the field styles (font and size, ...). 

 

Best regards,
Yuliana Gu

Community Support Team _ Yuliana Gu
If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

View solution in original post

7 REPLIES 7
BhaveshPatel
Community Champion
Community Champion

Go to the Data View, Select modelling Tab, Change the data type to Text.

Thanks & Regards,
Bhavesh

Love the Self Service BI.
Please use the 'Mark as answer' link to mark a post that answers your question. If you find a reply helpful, please remember to give Kudos.

Thank you.

 

We overlapped posting.

 

I already updated it and still not working. I added more questions to the original post.

 

Thanks.

 

ps.

Screenshot - 26_10_2016 , 4_54_07 PM.png

@raymondxie

 

2.   Select your Date column and change the check Date Hierarchy to your column name

 

Sin título.png

 

3. Just drag the colum up or down in the panel.




Lima - Peru

Thank you @Vvelarde, what about item 1? how to disable the field being displayed as scientific way?

 

And how do I change the grid's style(font,size,color....)

 

Thanks for your help.

Alright, I figured it out, after the Data Type of the text field is changed from text to Whole Number and the Format changed from Text to Whole Number, the field is displayed as a whole number in text.

 

Screenshot - 26_10_2016 , 6_42_33 PM.png

 

My new question is:

 

In Power BI, is there anything like custom format? I want to show the field in the format of: xxx-xxx-xxx, how can I do it? what about the styles (font and size, ...)?

 

Thank you

Hi @raymondxie,

 

Using this formula: Column = format('TableName'[ColumnName],"###-###-###") , you can format the field to display as "xxx-xxx-xxx". But you should note that the data type of this field will be changed to Text rather than number.

 

Besides, it is not allowed to format the field styles (font and size, ...). 

 

Best regards,
Yuliana Gu

Community Support Team _ Yuliana Gu
If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

Thank you @v-yulgu-msft, yes it works now:

 

Screenshot - 01_11_2016 , 9_16_32 AM.png

Helpful resources

Announcements
August Power BI Update Carousel

Power BI Monthly Update - August 2025

Check out the August 2025 Power BI update to learn about new features.

August 2025 community update carousel

Fabric Community Update - August 2025

Find out what's new and trending in the Fabric community.

Top Kudoed Authors