Confusing precision setting in number columns

Hi,

I’d like to suggest an improvement for the “Precision” dropdown for Number type columns.
It’s not a huge issue, but I find the current design rather counter-intuitive and easily misinterpreted.

At the moment, the precision dropdown offers the following selections:

  • 1
  • 1.0
  • 1.00
  • 1.000

and so on, up to eight decimal digits.

Choosing the first entry, however, does not mean that the number column uses a precision of 1. Whole numbers like “1”, “8” or “14” have a precision of zero (zero decimal digits).

Using the German localization, it’s similarly confusing. After selecting the top most entry in the dropdown, the column format settings show: “Nachkommastellen: 1” (decimal digits: 1).
Obviously, the resulting numbers have zero Nachkommastellen, and not one.

In my opinion, a better design for the dropdown would be:

  • 0 (14)
  • 1 (14.0)
  • 2 (14.00)
  • 3 (14.000)

That way, the entries actually match the setting name (“Precision” or “Nachkommastellen”), and they also illustrate how the resulting numbers would look like.

Thanks for the feedback.

When looking at the “1” in isolation, “Precision” and “Nachkommastellen” can be misinterpreted. However, when opening the precision dropdown, at the very latest, any potential confusion should be cleared up. The menu makes it very clear that the “1” does not mean “1 decimal precision”.

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