Removing 1000th separators from table widget

[doronwen]

I have a table widget where I'm trying to remove the 1000th separators.
I have a Web Map that links to my Experience, but in the Web Map the data shows without those 1000th separators.
I have an identical problem with the Edit Widget.
What do I do?

I'm using Portal 11.3

[CodyPatterson · Accepted solution]

Hey @doronwen 

It appears that this is currently a problem that has been around for a long time, this being noted in this discussion here:

https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-experience-builder-questions/how-to-remove-comma-separator-in-e...

From what I'm seeing, since your field is numeric, you would need to have it as a text or string field for it to lose the thousandths separator unfortunately, which is not a quality solution in my mind.

I would submit an idea on the Experience Builder Ideas forum, along with possible submitting an Enhancement request directly to ESRI regarding this issue, as I have encountered it before, but have so far ignored it as it wasn't important in that moment.

Cody

[JeffreyThompson2 · Accepted solution]

I have a slight disagreement with @CodyPatterson. There are many types of numbers that should be stored as text. I follow a rule where if I can't think of a reason to do math on a number, it should be stored as text. For example, the first number above appears to be an ID. There is no reasonable reason to do a calculation on an ID field, so it should be text. The second number appears to be a year. I might want to do a calculation on that field to know how many years ago the equipment was installed, so I want to save it as a number.

[CodyPatterson · Accepted solution]

Hey @JeffreyThompson2 

Thank you for offering a different point of view from what I had said, your ideology is definitely very just, and makes sense! Typically until I'm told otherwise I just default on the idea that it can't be changed, with the notion that it has the ability to be changed if possible. Text fields give a mountain of convenience when it comes to manipulating, displaying, and querying!

Cody

[DanielFox1]

@doronwen 

You might find this How to helpful, it reiterates Cody's point about changing from numeric to text/string fields

How To: Remove Comma Separators in ArcGIS Experience Builder Widgets

[doronwen]

@JeffreyThompson2 whether a number would be used for calculation or not is a great way of viewing it, and next time when I design a schema I will consider that. But also, when is the last time you've seen a Year with a thousand separator? So maybe I still use it in a calculation, but I'd also like the option to hide the separator if that make sense.

@CodyPatterson adding a new text field is not an option for me. The app and schema I'm working with are older and there are other processes that are linked to it that might break if I make any major changes. 
I was hoping it would be as easy as it is in Map Viewer - where you can slide a button and get rid of those separators. 

I'll add it to the "Ideas" page.

Thanks everyone for your feedbacks!

[JeffreyThompson2]

@doronwen Yep, commas in years is silly. I do really agree with everything @CodyPatterson said. I just felt it was worth adding that stuff like phone numbers should be stored as text even if they don't have letters in them.

If they are going to add in an option to toggle comma separators, and I hope they will, it should be a column by column option and respect locale settings, so that it switches to period separators where that is the standard.

[doronwen]

I'm going to take your advise next time I create a schema. That is great!

[doronwen]

An Idea was added here:

https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-experience-builder-ideas/adding-the-option-to-remove-1000th-sep...