While transforming your data, you may need to change the data type of one or more columns. |
For example, data of String type may be the easiest to manipulate. Since there are no mismatched values for String data type, you may wish to change a column's data type to this baseline type.
Tip: You can use the Change Column Type transformation to override the data type inferred for a column. However, if a new transformation step is added, the column data type is re-inferred, which may override your specific typing. You should consider applying Change Column Type transformations as late as possible in your recipes. |
For more information on the available data types, see Supported Data Types.
You can change a column's data type in one of the following ways:
You can change the data type for individual columns through the following column menus:
To the left of the column name, you can click the icon and select a new data type from the list.
Column Data Type Menu |
To the right of the column name, you can click the caret to open the column menu. Select Change Type and make a selection from the sub-menu.
Tip: Both of the above methods become individual steps in your recipe. |
You can change data type for a single column or multiple columns through the Transform Builder. You can use a transformation like the following, which changes the columns LastName
, FirstName
, and Address
to String data type.
NOTE: You can lock the data type for columns to prevent it from being updated when the data is transformed in subsequent steps. |
NOTE: When specifying a data type by name, you must use the internal value for the data type. The value in the column menu is the display name for the type. |
For more information, see Valid Data Type Strings.
You can lock a column's data type through the Transform Builder. When a column's data type is locked, the data type is no longer automatically checked and updated by the .
Tip: If you do not wish to have the data types modified, you can add a transformation to lock all of them in a single step. Details are below. |
lock column type
. All: Select all columns in the dataset.
NOTE: This option locks all the column's data type. |
Advanced: Specify the columns using a comma-separated list. You can combine multiple and range options under Advanced. Example:
c1,c3,c5~c8 |
This transformation locks the column data type:
This transformation locks the data types for all columns:
Tip: Many transformations support the Advanced option for column selection. You can specify column ranges, including all columns using the asterisk ( |
You can unlock a column's data type by following any one of these methods:
In the Transformer Builder, you can select unlock to the current type option to apply the unlock feature to one or more columns.
This transformation unlocks the column data type:
You can unlock the data type for individual columns through the following column menus:
If you are changing a column's data type to Datetime, you must also select a format string to apply to the column.
You can apply a Datetime data type through the column menus. When you choose the Datetime data type, you must apply a format for your Datetime values. For more information, see Choose Datetime Format Dialog.
In the Transformer Builder, you can apply a specific transformation to format one or more columns to Datetime data type, using a specific format.
Tip: You can use the following transformation to change the format of a Datetime column. |
This transformation looks like the following: