Dataflows data types parity with Power Query
Dataflows should have parity with Power Query when it comes to data types.
Currently, dates are converted to datetime and fixed decimal numbers are converted to decimal numbers. Time does not work at all.
I haven't tested all other data types, so I don't know if these three types (date, time, fixed decimal number) are all we need.
Daniil
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6 comments
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Joe Edwards
commented
Additionally there is a problem with the display of Whole Numbers. They have a data type of Int64.Type, and they are stored internally correctly, but they are displayed rounded as if they are doubles (i.e. to 15 significant figures), as can be seen by the following which uses the maximum permissible value of an Int64:
let
Source = Table.FromRecords({[LargeInteger = 9223372036854775807]}, {"LargeInteger"}),
ToInteger = Table.TransformColumnTypes(Source,{{"LargeInteger", Int64.Type}}),
ToText = Table.TransformColumnTypes(ToInteger,{{"LargeInteger", type text}})
in
ToTextThe "ToInteger" and "ToText" steps show different values when used in Power BI dataflows.
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Anonymous
commented
I was trying to develop a dataflow that returns a table with columns containing records or lists. You need to convert these complex types to text by encoding them. This is way too cumbersome.
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Alex
commented
Much needed, especially date is needed. After referencing a entity in another dataflow or in pbi desktop it converts back to datetime..
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Daniil
commented
@Anonymous the data type parity issue is not fixed, as far as I'm aware. So you get DateTime instead of Date at the moment.
What I referred to on the Issues website was the locale issue: there were errors when using US/Rest of the world date formats (MDY vs DMY). Here is the link for anyone curious: https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Issues/Dataflows-sets-data-types-incorrectly/idi-p/575824
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Anonymous
commented
@Danill, it seems I'm still experiencing the wrong Date type issue - a field appears to be correct Date type field in Data Flow, however, when loaded the data flow into PBI Desktop, such filed becomes DateTime field (12:00:00.00 is automatically added).
I read through your previous post regarding to this issue and the status was "fixed".
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Daniil
commented
Time has since been partially fixed -- now it is converted to DateTime.