Load Data Excel Fields Are Decimal

markmmiller09
Kilo Expert

I am trying to load data into ServiceNow from an Excel file (.xls). The import works however, the date fields become decimal fields. I've tried changing the Excel column to text, and general. I've saved the Excel file as a CSV and looked at the data.

 

Somewhere through the process of loading the Excel file into ServiceNow, the date fields are automatically formatting to decimal fields. I've checked the dictionary of the import table field and set all fields to "string". Why is this happening? Is this a bug in ServiceNow's import option?

 

 

import-table.png

Import Table

 

 

table-dictionary.png

Import Table Dictionary Field

 

 

excel.png

Field in Excel as "Text" format

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

adiddigi
Tera Guru

Did you try using a fresh import set table after changing the data from number to text?


View solution in original post

9 REPLIES 9

marcguy
ServiceNow Employee
ServiceNow Employee

in excel, copy the data into a new workbook and PASTE VALUES just to check what the values being held in the excel sheet are, I've seen it tell me one thing and import another before. also clear the import table and re-import it to check it's bringing in the new values.


Robert_Shores
Mega Contributor

I just imported a table of dates into my ServiceNow instance. The Excel file was saved as a .CSV, the Excel fields were set to "Date" and "Date/Time", I imported them into "String" and "Date" fields into a form in ServiceNow. When I changed the fields in Excel to "General" and/or "Text" then the dates (in Excel) were changed into numbers/decimals, but as long as I kept them formatted as "Date" and/or "Date/Time" it worked. Have you tried formatting the Excel fields to "Date" or "Date/Time"?


kinkuma
Tera Contributor

If you are having challenges with Excel's auto-formatting - one other shortcut is to insert an apostrophe (') at the start of the cell as it will force Excel to interpret the content as a string rather than trying to classify it for you.


adiddigi
Tera Guru

Did you try using a fresh import set table after changing the data from number to text?