Whereas the EditMask property is used to specify an input mask for data entry, the NumberFormat property is used to specify the display format of data in a grid cell. If the NumberFormat property of the column is not specified, the grid simply displays the cached text (stripped of literals) as is; if the NumberFormat property is specified, the grid sends the cached text to the display formatter.

Since it is common for the input and display formats to be the same, the NumberFormat property has an Edit Mask option. If this option is selected, then the EditMask property setting will be used for both data input and display. However, the input and display formats need not be the same, so a NumberFormat option that differs from the EditMask property can be selected.