Formatting and Suppression
Formatting controls how Cube View data appears to users — fonts, colors, number formats, and borders. Suppression controls which rows and columns are hidden when they contain no data or zeros. Together, these features transform raw cube data into polished, readable reports. This guide covers the formatting hierarchy, override system, conditional formatting, and all suppression options.
Formatting Hierarchy
Formatting in Cube Views follows a specific order of operations. Later settings override earlier ones:
- Application number format — The default number format defined at the application level
- Cube View default format — The default format set on the Cube View itself
- Column formatting — Format applied to an entire column definition
- Row formatting — Format applied to an entire row definition
- Column overrides — Format overrides on specific column intersections
- Row overrides — Format overrides on specific row intersections
Row overrides have the highest precedence. If a cell sits at the intersection of a formatted column and a formatted row with overrides, the row override wins.
Header Format
Header formatting controls the appearance of row and column headers — the labels that identify each row or column.
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| Font | Font family, size, bold, italic |
| ForeColor | Text color |
| BackColor | Background color |
| Alignment | Left, Center, Right |
| isColumnVisible | True — column is visible; False — column is hidden; CVMathOnly — column is hidden but available for CVC/CVR calculations |
The
isColumnVisible property is particularly important for calculated columns. Setting it to CVMathOnly hides a source data column from the user while keeping it available for column math expressions.Cell Format
Cell formatting controls the appearance of data cells — the values in the grid.
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| NumberFormat | Display format (e.g., #,##0, #,##0.00, 0%, $#,##0) |
| Font | Font family, size, bold, italic |
| ForeColor | Text color |
| BackColor | Background color |
| Borders | Top, bottom, left, right borders with style and color |
| Gridlines | Show or hide gridlines between cells |
Row and Column Overrides
Each row supports up to 4 overrides, and each column supports up to 4 overrides. An override applies a different member filter and/or formatting to a specific intersection within the row or column.
Use cases for overrides:
- Subtotal rows — Bold formatting on a parent member while children use normal weight
- Variance columns — Different number format (percentage) on a calculated variance column
- Highlighting — Background color on specific account rows
- Mixed members — Different dimensions or members at specific positions within a row or column
Conditional Formatting
Conditional formatting applies dynamic styling based on data values. Unlike static formatting, conditional formats evaluate at runtime.
Configuration
Each conditional format rule specifies:
- Condition — The expression that determines when the format applies (e.g., value < 0, value > threshold)
- Format — The styling to apply when the condition is true (font, colors, borders)
- Range — Which cells the rule applies to (specific rows, columns, or the entire view)
Common conditional formatting patterns:
- Negative values in red
- Values exceeding budget in green or red (better/worse)
- Zero values in gray
- Percentage columns with color scales
Suppression Settings
Suppression hides rows or columns that contain no data or only zeros, keeping reports clean and focused on relevant information.
Core Suppression Properties
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| SuppressNoDataRows | Hide rows where all cells have no data |
| SuppressNoDataColumns | Hide columns where all cells have no data |
| SuppressZeroRows | Hide rows where all cells are zero |
| SuppressZeroColumns | Hide columns where all cells are zero |
| ZeroSuppressionThreshold | Values at or below this threshold are treated as zero for suppression purposes |
Parent Row Suppression
UseSuppressionSettingsOnParentRows controls whether suppression rules apply to parent (aggregated) rows:
True— Parent rows are suppressed if they meet the suppression criteria (even if child rows have data, if the parent's own cells are empty/zero)False— Parent rows are always shown, regardless of their values
AllowInsertSuppressedMember
This property controls whether users can manually insert suppressed rows for data entry:
| Value | Behavior |
|---|---|
False | Users cannot insert suppressed rows |
All | Users can insert any suppressed member |
Nested | Users can insert suppressed members at any nested dimension level |
Innermost | Users can insert suppressed members only at the innermost (last) dimension level |
Sparse Row Suppression
For large Cube Views with many expanded rows, sparse row suppression improves performance by evaluating suppression during data retrieval rather than after.
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| AllowSparseRowSuppression | Enable sparse suppression for performance optimization on large views |
| UserToDetermineRowSuppression | Let the user toggle sparse suppression at runtime |
Sparse suppression is especially useful when a Cube View expands thousands of entity or account members but only a small percentage have data. Without sparse suppression, the engine retrieves all rows and then hides empty ones. With sparse suppression, empty rows are skipped during retrieval.
CanModifySuppression
Setting CanModifySuppression to
True allows end users to toggle suppression on and off at runtime from the Cube View toolbar. This is useful for reports where users sometimes need to see all rows (for data entry or analysis) and sometimes want a clean, suppressed view.Related Content
- Rows, Columns, and Member Filters — Previous guide: configuring rows, columns, and member filter syntax
- Cube View Calculations — Next guide: adding calculated rows and columns
- Data Input with Cube Views — How suppression interacts with data entry
- CubeView Extender Business Rules — Advanced formatting beyond built-in properties