Is it possible to change a Field Type from Decimal to Integer?

[richelle_pivec]

Is it possible to change a Field Type from Decimal to Integer? It does not appear to be a choice when I click on the magnifying glass next to the Type for an existing "decimal" field.

thanks,

Richelle

[Chuck Tomasi]

I thought I saw something recently, but a quick search through the docs and HI KB didn't turn up anything. If I come across it again, I'll be sure to share.

If you're in a bit of a hurry, reach out to customer support to see if they know of something published (and post the link back here). Thanks.

[Vaishnavi35]

Hi Chuck,

Is it the same case with Integer to Decimal? I have a custom field which is of Integer type and I want to change the type to Decimal.

Thanks,

Vaishnavi

[richelle_pivec]

Thank you both for your replies. Fortunately, this is in our Dev instance and a newly created field on a newly created table. So, no harm to just add a different field an move on.

I'll do a little investigation first to see if the script I'm trying to do would work with a decimal field. It isn't working yet, but I can't imagine why it would not. I'm trying to sum all of the values in the child tasks (in one field) into a field on the parent. I found a script that appears to be using integers, so I figured I needed to use integers too. But maybe I'll poke around a little and see if it couldn't be done with decimals instead.

Thanks,

Richelle

[Chuck Tomasi]

If you like, share the script and we take a look. 

One thing I found when doing "summing" like this is to follow two basic rules:

1. getValue() is your friend.
2. Never assume the data type and cast it to what you need.

Example
Bad code:

var num = 0;

while (something happens to be true here) {
  num += gr.u_count;
}

Good code:

var num = 0;

while (another true condition) {
   var countVal = gr.getValue('u_count');
   num += parseInt(countVal, 10);
}

[richelle_pivec]

Thanks Chuck,

This is where I got the original script (and permission to use it):

Business rule script to count value on related list

I modified it like this:

Name: Estimated Implementation Cost

Table: Demand Task [u_demand_task]

Run at: Server

When to Run: Update

Script:

(function executeRule(current, previous /*null when async*/) {


 var additional = new GlideAggregate('u_demand_task');
 additional.addQuery('approval', 'Approved');
 additional.addQuery('parent',current.sys_id);
 additional.addAggregate('SUM','u_estimated_implementation_cost');
 additional.setGroup(false);
 additional.query();

 if(additional.next())
 gs.log (additional.addAggregate('SUM','u_estimated_implementation_cost'));
 current.u_capital_implementation_cost = additional.getAggregate('SUM','u_estimated_implementation_cost');


current.update();


})(current, previous);

Both u_estimated_implementation_cost (which is on the u_demand_task table) and u_capital_implementation_cost (which is on the dmn_demand table) are decimal field types. (I also tried the business rule on the dmn_demand table as I wasn't quite sure which of the two it belonged on.

thanks for having a look,

Richelle