Data type changes during csv conversions.

After getting the final file in csv format, the data type of the few columns which are date, automatically changes to string format. Even after using select tool, conversion tool, formula tool to change the data type, the issue still persists. What could be a possible solution to this while converting to csv file?

Output

Accepted answers

alexnajm

CSV files do not store any other data type besides string, so you would need to look at outputting to xlsx instead - this is a CSV issue not an Alteryx issue

All comments

aatalai

IF you are looking to convert string to date, look at the datetime tool under Parse or use the formula tool a

alexnajm

CSV files do not store any other data type besides string, so you would need to look at outputting to xlsx instead - this is a CSV issue not an Alteryx issue

apathetichell

I mean not really a csv issue per se -> this is like 'we live on the earth.' It's not a feature/issue. CSV is by definition typeless. Having said that -> what system won't ingest a 'yyyy-mm-dd' directly to date?

to be clear 'yyyy-mm-dd' is the only correct date format. If you open your .csv in Excel and suddenly it becomes an excel format - this is a you issue. open your file in notepad - not Excel and you will you see Excel is performing evil magic to convert your dates into some secondary format.

alexnajm

Haha yes @apathetichell - I'll say "issue" then instead 😂

apathetichell

My hunch is the poster either

1) has non dates in the workflow and has not converted.

2) expects dates to not be in yyyy-mm-dd in the underlying csv

3) opened the csv in excel and sees dates in a different format.

alexnajm

Agreed!

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