Text - script and chart function

Text() forces the expression to be treated as text, even if a numeric interpretation is possible.

Syntax:

Text (expr)

Return data type: string

Arguments
Argument	Description
expr	An expression to be treated as text.

Example: Chart expressions
Example	Results
Text( 1234 )	Returns 1234 as a string. There is no numeric value.
Text( pi( ) )	Returns 3.1415926535898 as a string. There is no numeric value.

Example - Text fundamentals

Overview

Open the Data load editor and add the load script below to a new section.

The load script contains:

A dataset which is loaded into a data table called Example.
The following fields in the data table:
- ID
- PostalCode
A preceding load that uses the Text function to create a new field named PostalCode_Text to ensure that the postal codes remain as text and do not get converted to numbers.

Load script

Example:
LOAD
ID,
PostalCode,
Text(PostalCode) AS PostalCode_Text;
LOAD * INLINE [
ID, PostalCode
1, 12345
2, 54321
3, 67890
4, 11223
5, 33445
];

Results

Load the data and open a sheet. Create a new table and add these fields as dimensions:

ID
PostalCode
PostalCode_Text

Results table
ID	PostalCode	PostalCode_Text
1	12345	12345
2	54321	54321
3	67890	67890
4	11223	11223
5	33445	33445

The output of the preceding load uses the Text function to ensure that any numeric values are treated as text. You can see that the values in the PostalCode_Text column are processed as text and appear left-aligned by default, whereas the values in the PostalCode column are numbers and appear right-aligned by default.

Example - Text scenario

Overview

A dataset contains customer invoice data that are entered as numeric values, but you want to retain these values as text.

Open the Data load editor and add the load script below to a new section.

The load script contains:

A dataset which is loaded into a data table called Example.
The following fields in the data table:
- InvoiceNumber
- CustomerName
A preceding load that uses the Text function to create a new field named InvoiceNumber_Text to ensure that the invoice numbers are treated as text.

Load script

Example:
LOAD
InvoiceNumber,
CustomerName,
Text(InvoiceNumber) AS InvoiceNumber_Text;
LOAD * INLINE [
InvoiceNumber, CustomerName
10001, John Doe
10002, Jane Smith
10003, Bob Johnson
10004, Alice Brown
10005, Michael Green
];

Results

Load the data and open a sheet. Create a new table and add these fields as dimensions:

InvoiceNumber
CustomerName
InvoiceNumber_Text

Results table
InvoiceNumber	CustomerName	InvoiceNumber_Text
10001	John Doe	10001
10002	Jane Smith	10002
10003	Bob Johnson	10003
10004	Alice Brown	10004
10005	Michael Green	10005

The results show that the numeric values in the InvoiceNumber column have now been converted to text values in the InvoiceNumber_Text column and appear left-aligned.

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