topic Why do number field datatypes change to text/string in downloads from Open Data Portal? in ArcGIS Hub Questions https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-hub-questions/why-do-number-field-datatypes-change-to-text/m-p/96427#M490 <HTML><HEAD></HEAD><BODY><P>I've noticed that all number field datatypes (except for ObjectID) are converted to string datatypes in the Shapefile downloads from Open Data Portal.</P><P>For example, in the Open Data Portal for <A _jive_internal="true" href="https://community.esri.com/discussion/pendata.arcgis.com/datasets/287eaa2ecbff4d699762bbc6795ffdca_9">Washinton DC Parks</A>, you can see there is a field named "Benches" with a Number datatype:</P><P><IMG alt="Open Data Number Datatype" class="image-1 jive-image j-img-original" src="https://community.esri.com/legacyfs/online/228644_open_data-number_datatype1.png" style="width: 620px; height: 313px;" /></P><P></P><P>However, once you download the Shapefile, the datatype is converted to String:</P><P><IMG alt="Downloaded from Open Data now String Datatype" class="image-2 jive-image j-img-original" src="https://community.esri.com/legacyfs/online/228645_open_data-number_datatype2.png" style="height: auto;" /></P><P></P><P>This creates a hassle for people consuming this data if they want to symbolize based on numeric fields, because they have to convert the data in their GIS before they can symbolize using numeric data.</P><P><STRONG>Is this by design (if so, why?) or a oversite/bug?</STRONG></P></BODY></HTML> Thu, 15 Sep 2016 20:58:17 GMT alex_friant 2016-09-15T20:58:17Z Why do number field datatypes change to text/string in downloads from Open Data Portal? https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-hub-questions/why-do-number-field-datatypes-change-to-text/m-p/96427#M490 <HTML><HEAD></HEAD><BODY><P>I've noticed that all number field datatypes (except for ObjectID) are converted to string datatypes in the Shapefile downloads from Open Data Portal.</P><P>For example, in the Open Data Portal for <A _jive_internal="true" href="https://community.esri.com/discussion/pendata.arcgis.com/datasets/287eaa2ecbff4d699762bbc6795ffdca_9">Washinton DC Parks</A>, you can see there is a field named "Benches" with a Number datatype:</P><P><IMG alt="Open Data Number Datatype" class="image-1 jive-image j-img-original" src="https://community.esri.com/legacyfs/online/228644_open_data-number_datatype1.png" style="width: 620px; height: 313px;" /></P><P></P><P>However, once you download the Shapefile, the datatype is converted to String:</P><P><IMG alt="Downloaded from Open Data now String Datatype" class="image-2 jive-image j-img-original" src="https://community.esri.com/legacyfs/online/228645_open_data-number_datatype2.png" style="height: auto;" /></P><P></P><P>This creates a hassle for people consuming this data if they want to symbolize based on numeric fields, because they have to convert the data in their GIS before they can symbolize using numeric data.</P><P><STRONG>Is this by design (if so, why?) or a oversite/bug?</STRONG></P></BODY></HTML> Thu, 15 Sep 2016 20:58:17 GMT https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-hub-questions/why-do-number-field-datatypes-change-to-text/m-p/96427#M490 alex_friant 2016-09-15T20:58:17Z Re: Why do number field datatypes change to text/string in downloads from Open Data Portal? https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-hub-questions/why-do-number-field-datatypes-change-to-text/m-p/96428#M491 <HTML><HEAD></HEAD><BODY><P>I also noticed dates become&nbsp;text fields and all text fields&nbsp;are&nbsp;80 characters.&nbsp;Is there a way to preserve the field types (and length) from the source, as export to shapefile would do?</P></BODY></HTML> Tue, 27 Sep 2016 14:16:57 GMT https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-hub-questions/why-do-number-field-datatypes-change-to-text/m-p/96428#M491 HelenaMcMullen 2016-09-27T14:16:57Z