Why can't I get this file to import numbers? Or change them once I import

[Watermark]

This is one of 51 gov avail files. They are 150 columns. All identical.  They all come in as string. 

I've used autofield, and I've used select.

I've tried everything I can think of without putting a formula on each / every of 150 columns, to change these to numbers. 

What am I missing?? 

TIA

[clmc9601 · Accepted solution]

@Watermark, looks like you've got a couple of tricky characters hidden in your data. Here are my findings:

- Alteryx didn't recognize the current hyphen character. By replacing it with a typed hyphen, it could recognize negative numbers

- autofield didn't like the numbers with dozens of decimals. Rounding the strings fixed the problem.

- there was a period in every column. By removing it, autofield worked. 

You might want to double check that none of the strings got accidentally truncated. Lowering the number of regex matches in the second multi-field formula in the lower path made autofield not work for some columns, which was weird. I hope this helps!

Hidden periods revealed by regex_match with ^\dNow successful autofield

[Watermark]

Thx !