Reporting > Report Helpers > Number Format

Use the Number Format screen to configure how numbers are formatted in most Medallia Experience Cloud reports.

When rounding, the last digit you want displayed is known as the rounding digit. For example, if you want to round 3.016 to two decimal places, 1 is the rounding digit.

All rounding schemes have two possible outcomes: increase the rounding digit by one or leave that digit unchanged. With traditional rounding, if the number has a value less than halfway between the possible outcomes, it is rounded down. If the number has a value exactly halfway or greater than halfway between the possible outcomes, the digit is rounded up. For example, 4.5 is rounded to 5.0. In Experience Cloud, this traditional rounding rule is known as HALF_UP.

While traditional rounding increases the number 4.5 to 5, in fact 4.5 is no nearer to 5 than it is to 4. With large sets of scientific or statistical data trends are important, and traditional rounding biases the data upwards slightly on average. To resolve that bias, Experience Cloud also includes a HALF_EVEN rounding rule, for which numbers exactly halfway between the possible outcomes are sometimes rounded up and sometimes rounded down. With large sets of data, or when many rounding operations are performed, the HALF_EVEN rule reduces the total rounding error, with (on average) an equal portion of numbers rounding up as rounding down. This reduces upwards skewing of the result, and reduces the likelihood of error resulting from double rounding.

Specifically, the HALF_EVEN rule uses the following guidelines:

1. Increase the rounding digit by 1 if the next digit is 6 or more, or a 5 followed by one or more non-zero digits.
2. Leave the rounding digit untouched if the next digit is 4 or less.
3. Otherwise, if all that follows the last digit is a 5 (and possibly trailing zeroes), change the last digit to the nearest even digit. That is, increase the rounding digit if it is currently odd. or leave it unchanged if it is already even.

Examples of HALF_EVEN rounding:

• 3.016 rounded to hundredths is 3.02 because the next digit (6) is 6 or more
• 3.013 rounded to hundredths is 3.01 because the next digit (3) is 4 or less
• 3.015 rounded to hundredths is 3.02 because the next digit is 5, and the hundredths digit (1) is odd
• 3.045 rounded to hundredths is 3.04 because the next digit is 5, and the hundredths digit (4) is even
• 3.04501 rounded to hundredths is 3.05 because the next digit is 5, but is followed by non-zero digits
• 23.5 rounded becomes 24
• 22.5 rounded becomes 22
• −22.5 rounded becomes −22