Number Format Localization

Overview

1. BI Office allows the user to log into the application using a specific localization. Currently, the available languages are English and Hebrew. The chosen language drives the UI and sets the DEFAULT language for any open cubes.

Note: Independent of the UI language, users can open a cube in any one of the SSAS language types available.

2. When a cube is opened in a specific language, all the elements that are set in that language are TRANSLATED. This includes cube name, dimensions, hierarchies, levels, measures, calculations and even member names. The items to be translated are all determined in the cube structure.

• Any cube can have a default language; this drives all the translations and the numbering formats used for all generic format choices (like Currency, Percent and Standard).

• Cubes opened with a different language will NOT have their number formats changed (a known bug with Analysis Services, not yet corrected in 2012). The number formats will always reflect the default language of the cube.

3. When BI Office opens a cube, the number formats presented reflect the cube language settings (as per 2.1 and 2.2 above) on the SERVER. BI Office does not change these. The user can override any formats using the data format option in the Data Discovery grid menu – which is only applied superficially on the client.

4. BI Office EXPORTS content to Excel using two distinct methods:

• Quick Exports are driven from the client application and reflect the RAW values and their predefined formats in a basic Excel XML format. When this spreadsheet is opened in Excel, the language settings of Excel (on the client) and the workstation (regional settings) will determine how the number formats are interpreted – not how they were presented on the server or in BI Office.

• Distributions are driven from the Server and come with many more features. These exports will reflect the RAW values and their predefined formats as interpreted on the Server. This is, therefore affected by the regional settings of the server itself. It is further affected by the regional settings of Excel on the client – which will open and interpret the raw values and the formats based on its own settings and that of the workstation’s regional settings.

Summary

There are many factors in getting regionalized number formats correct. BI Office has tried to incorporate the most useful way to represent numbers both within the client application and through the various export options. Users should pay attention to the various drivers of number formatting in order to get the right response from the application stack.