ConvError: Summarize a String as a Number

[MarqueeCrew]

I learned something new today that comes with a word of warning.  

Did you know that you can summarize a string with a SUM function?  It is not possible without this little trick.  I was working with a module that did just that.  The way that the original developer must have accomplished this magical feat was to configure the SUMMARIZE function when the field was defined as a NUMBER, then ultimately reset the value back to a string. It works.

Here is the other thing that I learned that could affect you.  If the incoming value is defined as a STRING and you simply cast it to a number you might receive a warning message like:

ConvError: Summarize (5): value: 12,345 stopped converting at a comma. It might be invalid.

This conversion error occurred because the number 12345 had a comma in it.  If you have string values that might contain a comma, beware.  The sum of 10,500 and 12,750 is 22.This happens in a selct too.

ConvError: Select (6): value: 12,345 stopped converting at a comma. It might be invalid.

[AndyC · Accepted solution]

@MarqueeCrew top work again!

[jboschee]

Hi @MarqueeCrew,

Could you expand on this.  I think I'm running into something similar. All my sales and units sold are in string and I tried the summarize tool to group by product and sum the sales and units sold.  I receive null values when I run it.

Any advice would be great!