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To round or not to round big numbers?

  • 25 February 2022
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What are people's thoughts on the rounding up of big numbers? I understand the idea behind it but I think I prefer the accuracy of the whole number. I find myself just tabbing over the table view every time I see a big number so that I can get more detail. I think I would prefer that table view is still the default output for reports that only return one value, and I have to actively change that to a big number for the purposes of dashboarding. Just me?

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Best answer by rob 16 March 2022, 12:00

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I’m curious — for the precision vs. humanizing (saying 17.2k vs 17,225 or whatever) are you hoping to see that full precise number out on the dashboard for screenshots, checks, etc.? I’m imagining a solution where we might show you the full 17,225 number in a hover over or something, but I’m curious if that’d fit your use case.

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Hey Emily. I think my preference in general is that numbers are shown in table view by default, thereby giving me the precision I need, and then I can convert that to big number format when I’m creating dashboards. 

 

I tend to do more on-the-fly exploration than dashboard creation, so I’m more likely to need the precision in most cases.

 

I don’t know if anyone agrees with me. Big numbers definitely look cleaner and they certainly have a place.

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@adam Completely agree - always find myself going to table view to find the exact figure! 😀

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I always struggle with this myself. I appreciate the “summary” but simultaneously want the details! One thing I’ve tried is actually adding both the table view and the big summary number to my draft dashboards and seeing which I actually rely on day to day. 

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