Format Strings for Display of Zeros

When building a data-driven application, you will typically display data in a grid like this:

If there are a lot of zeros, this looks noisy, to which you might want a different, less noisy way to display zeros.

Given that zeros typically reflect a lack of change, an option is to use a dash.

The format string for this would be as follows:

#;(#);-

The first # before the ; is for positive values; then negative values, and finally zero values.

If you want to show thousand separators:

#,0;(#,0);-

Some may find the dash too noisy, and prefer nothing at all.

In which case, you would try the following:

#;(#);

Note here that there is nothing after the semicolon.

This, you will find, actually returns this:

Not putting anything after the semicolon communicates that you want the default display for a zero to be used.

You therefore need to supply something.

A simple solution is to provide a space.

#;(#); 

This is technically cheating, but it is good enough for most scenarios.

If you really want to have absolutely nothing in that cell, perhaps the grid is being exported, then you need to do some extra work and have some logic that controls the formatting.

This will depend on the technology you are using for the grid, and most of them support some sort of conditional logic.

The algorithm would be as follows:

value == 0 ? "" : $"{value:#;(#)}"

Bonus

These tips also work with Microsoft Excel. Use the Custom format as indicated:

TLDR

When displaying numbers that are zeros using a formatting string, you need to be extra careful to get the required results.

Happy hacking!