Set the data model's default Format, for each Data Type

[kevhav1]

For example: when the Power BI data model first creates a column with Data Type = 'Date', by default that column is formatted like 'Wednesday, March 14, 2001 (dddd, MMMM d, yyyy)'. Then, I always go to the Modeling tab, and use the Format drop-down to change it to '2001-03-14 (yyyy-MM-dd)'. Instead, I would like to be able to go into the "Options" menu in Power BI Desktop, and have a section where, for each Data Type (or at least Date, Date/Time, Decimal Number and Whole Number), I can set the default Format. So that I don't have to manually change it every single time! It would also be nice to add this as a setting in the Power BI Service. Set default Formats (maybe for the entire tenant, or maybe by user?) when creating a data model using the Power BI Service.

[fbcideas_migusr]

It's rather odd that a BI/visualization application would use the longest date format possible for its default. First thing I have to do it manually reformat every single date column to short date. What's increase the agitation is that there is no option to select and change all at once. Terrible oversight...twice...by developers!!

[Spencer_Abbott]

Good to know this very basic idea has been floating for 4 years now, and is still an issue.

[phaywood]

You do sometimes get the feeling when using Microsoft products that you're stepping back into the dark ages. Having to manually change things every time we create new reports is staggeringly unhelpful and extremely time consuming. Could someone, somewhere, please look into resolving some of these very basic design flaws in order that we can actually get on with doing what we're supposed to be doing.

[clare_alexander]

This takes a long time. If we could choose how we wanted to show dates as a Default - we could choose our preference. Even just once per report.

Also - Date Hierarchy... mostly, I use plain date instead

Currency - let us set it once per report - and then use the same currency....

These are all time consuming to chance and error prone areas.

[felipe_americo]

Congratulations to Microsoft, for having a product where everyone in the world have the same problem since day 0 and they lack the effort to solve!

[anthony_tanzi]

It's pretty wild that we can't change the defaults. At a minimum the default for the date field should be Short Date - 99% of the time I want the short date when dealing with dates.

[gsilva1]

It's unbelievable! More than 8 years and this doesn't adopted yet!

For God's sake!

[D-Dot7]

How exactly has such a basic idea that should have, honestly, been included to begin with, been ignored for 8 years? Even a temporary workaround would have been nice!

[hholthuis]

I would love this! However I sort of have a workaround now:

1. Save the PowerBi Desktop file as a project (*.pbip)
2. Close PowerBi desktop
3. Find/Replace in the resulting *.tmdl files (I use VS Code but could probably make a powershell or batch script)
4. Reopen the model (project) in PowerBi Desktop
   
   

String to find: "formatString: Long Date"

Replace with: "formatString: dd-mm-yyyy" (or whichever format you prefer)

You can even do this for multiple files/models all at once.