What does "Lock Data Type" mean in Workbench 4?

DataSquirrel

I've found importing Excel datetime values a bit tricky and am using Workbench to fix glitches.

 

The values are formatted in a way that works correctly on most columns, but some still come through as text. So I use the Schema tab to set the field type to DATETIME which seems to do the trick.

 

 

I've noticed an attribute on the right called "Lock Data Type" that I can't find mentioned in the docs or here on the Dojo. The screenshot below shows the attribute I'm talking about on the far right:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can someone tell me what ticking this box does? My hope is that it force Workbench to stick with the assignment. So that if for example, I selected DATETIME and tick the box, Workbench will always try to read that column as DATETIME and never treat it as TEXT.

 

Note: I've got a system that produces datetime columns in Exel. Most are treated as datetime, some come through as text. Same sort of date, identical code to do the convertion, everything looks the same in Excel. So. I want to lock this down in Workbench and make sure that the datetime values consistently go through as datetimes.

 

Thank you.

RGranada

Hi,

 

From the tests I've made with this feature, it does force workbench to use the selected datatype or use the error handling selected operation if the data cannot be converted to the selected datatype.

 

Hope this helps.

 

 

RGranada

Hi,

 

From the tests I've made with this feature, it does force workbench to use the selected datatype or use the error handling selected operation if the data cannot be converted to the selected datatype.

 

Hope this helps.

 

 

DataSquirrel

Thanks or the confirmation.