Automatic Data Type Conversion

When the data presented to a stage is of an inappropriate type, Spectrum™ Technology Platform can, in some cases, automatically convert the data to the appropriate type. For example, Validate Address accepts only string data as input. If the PostalCode input field is of type integer, Spectrum™ Technology Platform can automatically convert the field to string and successfully process the PostalCode field. Likewise, the Math stage needs data to be of a numeric data type. If the incoming data is of type string, Spectrum™ Technology Platform can convert the data to the data type specified in the Math stage's Fields tab.

Automatic data type conversions happen in the channels of a dataflow. If a channel is successfully converting a data type, there will be a blue dot in the middle of the channel:

If you double-click the channel you can see the data type conversion that's occurring. In this case, string data is being converted to integer data:

Note that you cannot change the data type in this dialog box for automatic data type conversions. The output data type is determined by settings in the downstream stage.

Fields that do not contain valid values or that cannot be converted result in a red circle in the channel.

You can specify what the dataflow should do if type conversion fails by using the type conversion options.