# Explanation of perspective table's columns.numberFormat

**URL:** <https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/explanation-of-perspective-tables-columns-numberformat/34898>\
**Category:** Ignition\
**Tags:** perspective\
**Created:** [May 19, 2020, 8:28pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/explanation-of-perspective-tables-columns-numberformat/34898 "2020-05-19T20:28:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![peter.dolberg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d9b06d/32.png) [@peter.dolberg](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/peter.dolberg)\
**Post date:** [May 19, 2020, 8:28pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/explanation-of-perspective-tables-columns-numberformat/34898/1 "2020-05-19T20:28:32Z")

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I was looking at the documentation of the [Perspective table](https://docs.inductiveautomation.com/display/DOC80/Perspective+-+Table), in the `columns` section and the property `numberFormat`. That section doesn’t have any information about valid `numberFormat` values or what different patterns mean. I’m left to guess based on pre-configured set of options. Can you give better information about what characters and patterns in the `numberFormat` property are valid and what they do? If you use a common library, then a link to its documentation would be sufficient.

Originally I was trying to see if I could add a static prefix and/or suffix in the number format. For example, I could format `5` into `Next 5 days` with a pattern like `Next 0 days`. It seems that prefixes or suffixes are stripped out and have no effect, or cause the format to break. My example above just shows `5` with my custom `numberFormat`.

If I knew more about how `numberFormat` patterns are applied then I would have been able to more quickly assess whether the static prefix/suffix is possible and, if not, take another approach.

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**Author:** ![paul-griffith](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/paul-griffith/32/37249_2.png) [@paul-griffith](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/paul-griffith)\
**Post date:** [May 19, 2020, 9:12pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/explanation-of-perspective-tables-columns-numberformat/34898/2 "2020-05-19T21:12:27Z")

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Number formatting uses [http://numeraljs.com/](http://numeraljs.com/), while date formatting uses [https://momentjs.com/](https://momentjs.com/), throughout Perspective.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![peter.dolberg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d9b06d/32.png) [@peter.dolberg](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/peter.dolberg)\
**Post date:** [May 19, 2020, 9:48pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/explanation-of-perspective-tables-columns-numberformat/34898/3 "2020-05-19T21:48:00Z")

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Thank you, that’s very helpful!