Question

Excel import string handled as integer

1

Hello, I have an Excel sheet with a column with numbers. The cell properties are set to text so leading zero's are shown like 00123. When I use the Excel importer I verified that the import is handled as string. But after the import the leading zero's are gone and the number has become 123. It looks like the importer handles the string as integer although it is set as string. Has anyone else noticed this. Am I doing something wrong? Regards, Ronald

asked 2011-01-06

Ronald Catersels

1 answers

Jasper van der Hoek · Answer 1 · 2011-02-07

The excel importer processes all values according to the type excel has stored for it.

There are two ways how excel can show a number with leading zero's. The value can be stored as a string/text. In that case the importer won't have a problem importing the values as they are shown.
Or excel can use a display mask. This means that excel stores that the type is a float, it stores the value as a float (with decimals) and processes it as a flow. But only when displaying the value it will be shown with leading zero's and without decimals. Display masks are for now impossible to apply during the import.
You can use a microflow to format your value. Just create an flow with a float as input and an string as output and format the value as you would like to display it in your project.