How to Change Decimal Places in Tableau

Getting your numbers to look just right in a report can feel like a small detail, but it makes a huge difference in how your audience understands the data. A long string of decimals can be distracting and imply a level of precision that isn’t real, while inconsistent formatting just looks messy. This article will walk you through several straightforward methods to change and control decimal places in Tableau, so your dashboards are always clear, professional, and easy to read.

Why Formatting Your Numbers in Tableau Matters

Before jumping into the "how," it’s worth touching on the "why." Proper number formatting, especially with decimals, is a cornerstone of effective data visualization for a few key reasons:

• Readability: A dashboard displaying "$5,432.10" is instantly more readable than "$5432.1000003". Clean formatting reduces cognitive load, allowing your stakeholders to grasp the important information faster.

• Professionalism: Clean, consistently formatted reports look professional and build trust. It shows that you’ve paid attention to the details and carefully considered how to present the information.

• Clarity: Controlling decimal places helps you present data with an appropriate level of precision. Is it really necessary to show that your click-through rate is 3.14159%? Or is 3.1% or even 3.14% clear enough? Truncating decimals prevents your audience from getting lost in details that don't impact their decisions.

Taking a moment to adjust these settings elevates your work from a simple chart to a polished, professional business intelligence tool.

Method 1: The Quickest Fix for Global Changes (Default Properties)

The most efficient way to format a measure is by setting its default properties. When you do this, Tableau will apply your formatting choice every single time you drag that measure into a view, saving you from having to format it over and over again on different worksheets.

This is the best method for core metrics like Sales, Profit, or Quantity that you'll use throughout your workbook.

Follow these steps:

1. In the Data pane on the left, find the measure you want to format (e.g., ‘Sales’).

2. Right-click on the measure name.

3. From the context menu, hover over Default Properties and then click on Number Format….

4. A dialog box will appear. Here, you have several options. For our goal, click on Number (Custom).

5. In the “Decimal places” field, simply type the number of decimals you want to display. For example, if you're working with sales data and don't want to show cents, you would enter 0. If you want standard currency format, you would enter 2.

6. Click OK.

That's it! Now, every time you use the 'Sales' measure in a new chart, table, or KPI card, it will automatically default to the number of decimal places you selected. This one-time setup ensures consistency across your entire dashboard.

Example Scenario: You have a ‘Profit Ratio’ field that shows up as 0.2358. To convert this into a clean percentage, you could right-click it, go to Default Properties → Number Format, select Percentage, and set the decimal places to 1. Now it will always appear as "23.6%".

Method 2: Formatting on a Case-by-Case Basis (Format Pane)

Sometimes you don't want to change the default formatting for an entire measure. You might want to show ‘Sales’ with two decimal points in a detailed table but with zero decimal points in a high-level KPI card. In this situation, you should format the specific instance of the measure on your worksheet.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Drag your measure (e.g., ‘Sales’) onto a shelf, like Rows or Text on the Marks card.

2. Find the green "pill" representing that measure on the shelf. Right-click on the pill.

3. Select Format… from the menu.

4. The Format pane will open on the left-hand side. Make sure you are on the correct tab (e.g., 'Pane' for text tables or numbers in the graph, 'Axis' for the axis labels).

5. Under the "Numbers" dropdown, select your desired format. For example, choose Number (Custom) and then set the decimal places as needed. Or you can select one of the currency options already there, which will likely handle it for you.

The changes you make here will only affect this specific instance of the measure on this one worksheet. The default properties of your ‘Sales’ measure remain unchanged, giving you maximum flexibility.

When to use this method:

• When you need different display formats for the same measure in different charts.

• For quick, one-off adjustments on a single worksheet.

• When you want labels to have fewer decimals than the tooltip details.

Method 3: Using Calculated Fields for Ultimate Control

For more advanced or dynamic control over your numbers, you can use calculated fields. This method actually alters the data value (with rounding) or converts it into a string for display purposes. Use this approach with care, as it impacts underlying calculations.

Rounding Numbers with the ROUND() Function

The ROUND() function allows you to round a number to a specified number of decimal places. This is useful when you want the number itself — not just its visual display — to be rounded for all subsequent calculations.

The syntax is simple:

ROUND([Measure], NumberOfDecimalPlaces)

For example, if you wanted to create a new field called ‘Sales Rounded’ that permanently rounds sales figures to zero decimal places, you would create a calculated field with this formula:

ROUND(SUM([Sales]), 0)

A word of caution: This is a destructive action from a data perspective. If the original sales value was $100.75, this new calculated field will store it as $101. All further calculations using this new field will use $101, not $100.75. This is very different from the formatting pane, which only changes how the number is displayed while retaining the original value in the background.

Converting Numbers to Strings with STR()

Another powerful technique is converting a number to a string (text) for display. This gives you complete control over how a number appears, such as adding prefixes, suffixes, or combining it with other text.

You often use STR() in combination with ROUND().

Example Scenario: You want to display profit in a text label as "Profit: $45.6K". Standard number formatting can't mix numbers and text like that. A calculated field is the perfect solution.

Here’s an example formula to show a rounded percentage value with a "%" sign attached:

STR(ROUND([Profit Ratio] * 100, 1)) + '%'

Let's break it down:

• [Profit Ratio] * 100: Converts a ratio like 0.255 to 25.5.

• ROUND(..., 1): Rounds that number to one decimal place.

• STR(...): Converts the final number (25.5) into text ("25.5").

• + '%': Appends the percentage symbol to the text.

The key tradeoff: The output of this calculation is a string, not a number. This means you can't perform any more math on it (e.g., you can't sum it or find an average). It’s strictly for display purposes in labels or titles.

Final Thoughts

Mastering how to change decimal places in Tableau is a fundamental skill that significantly enhances the clarity and professionalism of your dashboards. Whether you're setting a workbook-wide standard using Default Properties, making a quick adjustment with the Format pane, or building a custom display with a calculated field, you have complete control over how your data is presented.

Spending hours fine-tuning formats and wrangling data across multiple platforms is a common frustration that keeps teams from getting the answers they need quickly. At Graphed, we built a tool to eliminate that friction completely. Instead of manually connecting data sources and painstakingly formatting every chart, you can simply ask for the dashboard you need in plain English — like "create a sales dashboard comparing campaign performance by region for this quarter" — and we answer with real-time, interactive charts, saving you the time you'd otherwise spend on these manual tweaks.