Conver Date to General

[cobo1981]

Hello,

I have this very annoying problem where the fund number is 2DEC. Now since we are converting all out files into CSV for easier processing, that fund goes from 2DEC to 12/2/2019. How do I keep it from converting to date and staying as 2DEC?

[mmenth]

Hi @cobo1981,

What do you plan to do with the csv? I think it is just Excel that changes it to a date. I wrote out a test file to csv and read it back in to Alteryx, and it was still '2DEC'. If I open the csv with notepad it also says '2DEC'. If you don't need to use the csv's in Excel, I would say it's safe to ignore the changes that Excel makes.

If you goal is to have easier processing, I suggest converting your files to Alteryx's file type .yxdb, assuming you are doing all your processing with Alteryx only. 

Best,

mmenth

[cobo1981]

Hi mmenth,

the goal of the conversion to csv is to have all the files in the same format before starting the workflow because vendors often send the same files in different formats, which then breaks the workflow every time we try to use it. So in some cases "2DEC" would stay "2DEC" while in others it would convert to date, even different date formats. So it complicates a lot of things.

I did not know that it is possible to convert to alteryx file, I will give that a try.

Thank you