Skip to Main Content
Spotfire Ideas Portal
Status Future Consideration
Product Spotfire
Categories Data Management
Created by Guest
Created on Sep 1, 2022

eliminate the difference on number formatting between Windows and Linux

According the product document, there is a difference on number formatting between Windows and Linux,


lhttps://docs.tibco.com/pub/spotfire_server/12.0.0/doc/html/TIB_sfire_server_tsas_admin_help/server/topics/running_web_player_or_automation_services_on_linux.html


  • Formatting of numbers and dates can have minor differences (for example, rounding to a specific number of decimals is handled slightly differently on Linux and Windows).


This is due to the different behavior between .NET Framework 4.8(Windows) and .NET 6(Linux),


https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/base-types/standard-numeric-format-strings


  • On .NET Framework and .NET Core up to .NET Core 2.0, the runtime selects the result with the greater least significant digit (that is, using MidpointRounding.AwayFromZero).

  • On .NET Core 2.1 and later, the runtime selects the result with an even least significant digit (that is, using MidpointRounding.ToEven).


This difference only applies if Spotfire is using "Standard numeric format strings" to format numbers, which is the case when user specifies format under category General/Currency/Percentage/Scientific/Number in the Formatting tab of "Column Properties" dialog.

As far as I have tested, "Custom numeric format strings" isn't affected by above difference, i.e. custom format string 0.00 or #.## always acts as MidpointRounding.AwayFromZero on both .NET Framework 4.8(Windows) and .NET 6(Linux).


I assume user-specified format under category General/Currency/Percentage/Scientific/Number is translated into "Standard numeric format strings" internally by Spotfire.


Please add option to translate the user-specified format under category General/Currency/Percentage/Scientific/Number into "Custom numeric format strings" like 0.00 or #.##, in order to eliminate the difference on number formatting between Windows and Linux.


  • Attach files