Data Formats

Numbers

	Examples	When and how to use
Numbers	4,255,165.00	Space is not limited, e.g. Settings dialog:
Numbers short	10.5k 3.3M	Space is limited, e.g. in table or lists.
Percentage	13%
Ratios	3 of 10
Ratios short	3/10	Space is limited, e.g. in table or lists.
Currency	$10

Date and time

By default, the date and time formats are taken from the system settings. The format can be changed on the Settings | Appearance & Behavior | System Settings | Date Formats page.

See the table below to understand in which cases to show date and time.

	Examples	When and how to use
Date	Today 05 Jan 05 Jan 2017	Omit the time for events if the exact time does not matter, e.g., Annotate panel. Use Today and Yesterday for the last two days, use exact date for all other days. Do not show the year if it’s within the current calendar year.
Date and time	Today, 14:04 05 Jan, 14:04 05 Jan 2019, 14:04	When it is important to know the exact sequence of actions, e.g., Version Control Log.
Time	22:49	Omit date if the event happened today and it’s clear from the context.
Date and day of week	Tuesday, 30 August	Use as headers in timelines, e.g., Event Log. The day of the week helps to quickly understand how long ago was the event. Use Today and Yesterday for the last two days, use exact date for all other days.
Approximate time	A moment ago 10 minutes ago 2 hours ago	Use for a single event that happened recently, e.g., in the Status bar: Do not use in tables as it’s harder to compare. If more than 12 hours have passed since the event, use Date format.

Version Control Log (in IntelliJ IDEA incorrect format is used at the moment)

Event Log

Duration

	Examples	When and how to use
Period	10 milliseconds 10 seconds 10 minutes 1 hour	Space is not limited, e.g. Settings dialog:
Time-lapse	1 h 30 m 30 s 1 h 30 m 30.035 s 1 h 1 h 0 m 30 s 1 m 30 s 05 Jan 2019, 14:04	Use for changing duration. Select units depending on the process type. E.g., Unit tests usually run less than a minute, so show only seconds and milliseconds. Build tasks usually run more than a minute, so show minutes and seconds. Omit hours and seconds that do not provide additional data.
Time-lapse condensed ISO 8601 standard	1:30:01.350	Use when space is limited or to describe a range, e.g. 1:30:01.350 – 1:30:02.350

Examples

When and how to use

Period

10 milliseconds

10 seconds

10 minutes

1 hour

Space is not limited, e.g. Settings dialog:

Time-lapse

1 h 30 m 30 s

1 h 30 m 30.035 s

1 h

1 h 0 m 30 s

1 m 30 s

05 Jan 2019, 14:04

Use for changing duration. Select units depending on the process type. E.g., Unit tests usually run less than a minute, so show only seconds and milliseconds. Build tasks usually run more than a minute, so show minutes and seconds.

Omit hours and seconds that do not provide additional data.

Time-lapse condensed ISO 8601 standard

1:30:01.350

Use when space is limited or to describe a range, e.g. 1:30:01.350 – 1:30:02.350

Quantities of data

Use decimal numeral system.

bits	10 bits
bytes	10 B
kilobytes	10 KB
megabytes	10 MB
gigabytes	10 GB
terabytes	10 TB

Units

All numeric values should be given a unit or clearly labeled if they do not have suitable units, e.g. counters.

Select the most convenient units.

Incorrect	Correct

Place units after the input field.

Incorrect	Correct

Tables

Use the rules below to make it easier to compare numbers in one column.

Right-align numeric values.

Include the unit in the column header if all values share the same unit. Convert each number to use the same unit. If it’s not possible, e.g., the scatter of numbers is too large, include the unit with each value.

Incorrect	Correct

Be consistent with the precision of the significand.

Incorrect	Correct

Last modified: 23 May 2024