Change a field's type — Sterodata docs

Which types a field can change to, what happens to its values on the way, and which changes Sterodata refuses.

A field's type can change after it holds values: a text column from an import can become a date, a list of choices or a link. Sterodata only offers the types it can convert the values into.

Change the type

Open the column's ⋮ menu and choose Edit field.
Pick the new type under Type. Only the types this field can become are listed; when there is no Type list, the field cannot change type.
Fill in the new type's settings, then choose Save.

What converts

From	To	What happens to the values
Text, Email, Phone, URL	Each other	Kept as they are. Values that do not fit the new type are marked, not changed.
Text	Single select	Kept. Sterodata offers every value the column holds as a choice, with a colour, before you save.
Text	Multiple select	Split at the commas: `red, large` becomes two choices.
Single select	Multiple select	Each choice is kept as the record's one choice.
Multiple select	Single select or Text	Only the first choice of each record is kept.
Number, Currency, Percent	Each other	The stored number is kept. A percent is stored as a fraction, so the number 0.25 becomes 25%, and 25 becomes 2,500%.
Text	Date and time	Read in the date format Sterodata detects, or the one you pick. See below.
Text, Email, Phone, URL, Number, Currency, Percent, Date and time, Checkbox	Linked record	Each value is replaced by the record of the other table whose Match on field holds it. See below.
Lookup	Linked record	Each record is linked to the row its lookup finds; of several, the earliest-added. See Lookups.
Calculation	The type of its result	The formula runs once and its results are kept as values. Later changes no longer recalculate them.

Text to date

Sterodata checks the column and proposes how to Read the text as, such as day, month, year. Pick another format if the proposal is wrong. Under If a value can't be read, choose Cancel the change, so nothing changes and Save lists the values that did not fit, or Leave it empty. To keep the text as it is, choose Copy as a new date field instead: it adds a date field beside it, named like Delivery (date).

A field to a link

Pick the table to link to, then under Match on the field of that table that holds the same values, such as a customer's name or a product's code. Sterodata proposes a field with the same name. When several records match a value, the earliest-added is linked.

A value that matches no record becomes an empty link, and the original text is not kept. Make sure every value exists in the other table first, or copy the column before you convert it.

What Sterodata refuses

Any change not listed above: a date to a number, a checkbox to text, an attachment to anything else.
Turning Multi-currency off while records are in another currency, or taking a currency out of Currencies offered while records use it. Change those records first.
A change that would break something that uses the field, such as a formula reading through a link's display column. Used by in Edit field lists what uses it.
In a connected database, a change that would alter the database's own column, such as text to a date, and turning a column into a User field.
In a Dynamic table, a change to a column it shows from its tables. It can only be renamed there: its type is set in the table it comes from.

Renaming or removing a choice is not a type change, but it touches records too: see Choice fields.