UI/UX Tip: Data Table Column Header Format Can Differ From The Body

TLDR; format your data so it makes sense to the users

I recently came across a data table where the developer was displaying two columns. The second column had a percentage, originally labeled as Percent Complete but it was abbreviated as % Complete

The data was formatted to match the column header:

That doesn’t look right…

That doesn’t read naturally. It’s more legible if the unit (here, a percent sign) came after the numeric value:

There we go!

The same thing would apply if you were measuring dollars:

Formatting of dollars; at least in the US

The Take-Away

The format of your data does not have to match the format of the column heading.