It would be great to have a text column type that stays text.
Or alternatively an option that will force a text column to stay text, even in the formula editor.
Thank you very much,
Rambling Pete
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If this SOLVES my issue with pasted in filenames being turned into hyperlinks, then I’m all for it!..
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This is a huge annoyance especially with tables that are replaced and rebuilt from automations or webhooks.
The workaround is simple. Create the table and add a row that “trains” the table to adhere to data types by adding example values. Then hide that row with a standard filter. Once done, you are able to add numbers to text fields without it converting the column type.
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Hi Bill
That is what I did in the example.* The column type was Text, but when I used the column in formulas, it was numeric. So I could not use lenght() formula to identify cells of length= 3 to add a leading zero. Leftpad() worked, but it is annoying to have column types change on you.
*I copied a table from Excel, with the first row = text entries. It could be that if I only copied the first row, that it would have worked better.
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That’s been my experience - for some reason, tables “learn” about proper data types from the first row, not from the field meta specification (apparently).
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This is something that really really annoys me.
@Coda, please, stop messing with my column type.
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Same here! Just today I was demoing a document to a client, where I had deleted all the sample data, and the text column took my input and converted it to a number column without me asking.
I entered a tracking number, but it abbreviated it in the column since sample data wasn’t there to confirm it was a text column… But I’d rather it just stay a text column if that’s the way I set it.
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When it automatically changes the column type to “Date” , it’s not just an annoyance.
It makes my doc unusable. You just can’t enter any other type of data until you change it back to text.
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^^^ Misery Loves company… - Mephastophilis, The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus
Thanks everyone for chiming in on this - I’ve been BUGGED by this problem for a long time now; it robs me of many’a-minutes EVERY DAY… 
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Or better -
It is absolutely a basic technical requirement to define data types and cement them as sustainable expectations. Who builds a database that decides on a whim that the chosen data type should be ignored?
Customers hate surprises unless they are magical. This isn’t one of them.
@Codans - I think this is not a support issue; it’s a usability crisis.
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Related (to hopefully help anyone else affected by this issue):
- Ask the Community ▸ Accidentally converting text fields in a form to date fields
- Bugs ▸ Columns types changing on their own
- Bugs ▸ Text field turns into a date field when I type text with a date in it
Trigger:
There is no other row in the table with a non-blank value in this field. In other words, this conversion will happen if the table is empty, or if every other row in the table has no value for this column.
Current workaround:
Have a row somewhere with a non-blank value for this column, and filter it out of view.
I just tried creating a new table w/a text column and the toggle button column (hidden) as mentioned.
Unless I implemented this incorrectly:
[ this is plain text ] | [ –0 ] ← (toggle turned on w/filter to hide ‘toggled’ rows)
When I paste in a filename into the first column, as per my original post about this all day / every day issue:
( BUG:Filename pasted into TEXT fields are interpreted as Hyperlinks )
The text still ends up as hypertext.
Having that hidden row with “simple text” in the Text column, doesn’t prevent the pasted in filenames from being converted into a hyperlink.
I still have to manually click the pencil to convert it back to plain text.
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+1 bump
This keeps happening to me. I don’t understand the idea of keeping a row with a value and filtering it out as some have suggested. I have hundreds of rows that are text type but if the user puts 1 date in, everything switches. I understand interpreting types but this is a BUG and user hostile.
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PROPS, John!
I’m STILL suffering as well!
I see Simple Tables are coming online soon - I WISH Coda would tackle this next, this problem is so crippling and such a time waster!
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