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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