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1. Re: Can I force a data connection to assign all fields as string data type?
Joe OppeltJul 18, 2018 1:55 PM (in response to Chris Panks)
In your screenshot there is a little pound sign above all those numeric fields. if you click on it, you can change the data type of each to ABC. You'll have to do each column individually.
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3. Re: Can I force a data connection to assign all fields as string data type?
Chris Panks Jul 18, 2018 2:44 PM (in response to Joe Oppelt)Thanks for your suggestion. When I do that, I get left-aligned string zeroes in the column, not the nulls or blanks that I can use. My guess is that it reformats what has been imported, it doesn't go back and make that a string variable for import.
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4. Re: Can I force a data connection to assign all fields as string data type?
Chris Panks Jul 18, 2018 2:49 PM (in response to Jeff Strauss)Thanks!
Again, that converts the existing numeric zeroes into string zeroes, it doesn't go back and change how the original data is imported.
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5. Re: Can I force a data connection to assign all fields as string data type?
Jeff StraussJul 18, 2018 3:00 PM (in response to Chris Panks)
1 of 1 people found this helpfulMaybe it's specific to redcap? I tried a Postgres, Excel, and csv datasource, and all the # fields were kept as null if there was no value. One other suggestion is within the data connection window, try changing the datatype here to a string and see if it helps.
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6. Re: Can I force a data connection to assign all fields as string data type?
Chris Panks Jul 19, 2018 8:02 AM (in response to Jeff Strauss)Thank you, it's great to have that confirmation that this is not the expected behavior. As a workaround, maybe I'll try exporting from redcap to a csv, to see if that makes the data usable.
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7. Re: Can I force a data connection to assign all fields as string data type?
Chris Panks Jul 19, 2018 9:38 AM (in response to Chris Panks)For anyone else that might come across this problem, getting the data to Tableau from Redcap via a csv file, instead of via a direct Web Connector did the job. The nulls are showing up as nulls. It's a clumsy workaround, but at least the data can be used until I figure out a better way.