Importing after update does not import dates or numbers

Tap Forms – Organizer Database App for Mac, iPhone, and iPad › Forums › Using Tap Forms › Importing after update does not import dates or numbers

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  • April 29, 2014 at 12:10 PM #9803

    Frank Tikket
    Participant

    For some reason, when i do an import all fields as “text”… everything comes in, when i change formats to date or number the columns go blank- what could that possibly be? it seems to pick up phone numbers and other categories just fine. All my data in the date/numbers columns are in the same format….

    Thanks!

    April 29, 2014 at 2:13 PM #9812

    Brendan
    Keymaster

    Hi Frank,

    This is caused by the date format in Tap Forms not matching the actual date format from your file.

    What format is the data in and what format have you told Tap Forms to expect? You can find out what Tap Forms is expecting by looking at the Import & Export Settings. On the iPhone and iPad version it’s in the Tools area. on the Mac version it’s right on the Import Records window.

    When you switch types from Text to Date, Tap Forms does not do a conversion, but is now looking at a different column in the database for your Date information but it’s not finding it, because it’s still stored in the location where Text data is stored. So that’s why it appears that it has disappeared. If you switch back to Text you’ll see the data again. But that data will be treated as Text and not actual Dates.

    You have to make sure the Date Format is set correctly for importing. It just has to match the actual data you’re giving Tap Forms.

    For example,

    04/29/2014 should have the date format mm/dd/yyyy set for it. But 29/04/2014 should have dd/mm/yyyy as the selected Date Format.

    Thanks!

    Brendan

    April 29, 2014 at 2:58 PM #9820

    Frank Tikket
    Participant

    Thanks for responding. After importing then deleting and importing again about 15 times I finally got every column to come in. Im not sure what caused this. All my formats are the same 04/16/2014 importing from 04/16/2014 so that should not be the problem, I also have numbers that were causing an issue to ranging from 1 to 500, with no decimals or anything.

    Some text columns didn’t come through either while others did. I finally deleted the mac app and reinstalled about 5 times, now it has come through. Oh well, I’m just glad to be back up and running… now just gonna wait for the iPhone app to sync up.

    I know its a lot of demands from lots of people, but you do well to keep it professional and keep up (I would be overwhelmed).

    Thank you again Sir!

    April 29, 2014 at 4:28 PM #9825

    Brendan
    Keymaster

    Hello Frank,

    It’s also important to make sure the File Encoding setting is correct in Tap Forms for the file that you’re trying to import. So that setting depends on where the file came from. If it was from Mac Excel, then Mac OS Roman is usually a good bet. If it came from Windows Excel, then using Windows Latin 1 is a good bet. But the more universal file encoding is UTF-8. A mismatch in that setting and what file encoding the file actually is encoded with can make Tap Forms miss importing some rows.

    Today has been a challenge for sure, but so far most people have been very kind and understanding and nobody has thrown any rocks at me yet :)

    Thanks,

    Brendan

    October 9, 2016 at 8:45 PM #20021

    David Oakley
    Participant

    Did this ever get sorted? I have a similar problem. The XLSX format is dd/MM/yyyy. The Tapforms import setting is dd/MM/yyyy. The field on the form is set to Date dd/MM/yyyy

    But all I get is blank. I haven’t tried converting the Excel sheet to csv, but Tapforms claims to import from Excel.

    October 9, 2016 at 10:27 PM #20022

    Brendan
    Keymaster

    Try using the Excel Date Format in the popup button on the Import Records window.

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