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JohnRoss2's avatar
JohnRoss2
Qrew Assistant Captain
3 years ago

Why do pipelines have a 12 digit limit for numerical fields?

As the title says.  For companies like us who deal with ICCID's, Serials, MAC's, etc., the 12 digit limit just does not work.  Though I am curious to find out if this will effect something like an ICCID if we have it in a text field vs. a numerical field?

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John Ross
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Pipelines
Tables and fields

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  • MarkShnier__You's avatar
    MarkShnier__You
    Qrew Champion
    3 years ago
    You must never use a numeric field type to hold "numbers" longer than 12 digits.  You must use a text field.  All computers have a limit on the size of a number they can hold. If you enter numbers in QuickBase longer than 12 digits then the number actually gets rounded and converted to maybe some crazy scientific notation. And you lose accuracy.  So the solution is to convert the field to a text field but before you do that you have to consider the implications of it in terms of look up fields and things like that.

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    Mark Shnier (YQC)
    mark.shnier@gmail.com
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    • JohnRoss2's avatar
      JohnRoss2
      Qrew Assistant Captain
      3 years ago
      Hey Mark, thanks for the reply.

      We run into this problem with excel, (12 digits and then 15 as the hard cut).  But it sounds like if we have them set to text we should be okay.  Currently that is what we do I believe.

      You know I kind of figured with newer hardware, 64 bit systems, etc., that the digit limits could be way higher now days.  haha.

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      John Ross
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      • ScottBurday__Tr's avatar
        ScottBurday__Tr
        Qrew Trainee
        3 years ago
        A simple rule that I learned a long time ago; if you need to do math with the field then it should be numeric.  If you do not need to do math with the field it should be text.

        For items like ICCIDs, serial numbers, etc. there is no need to do any math with the data so it should be a text.  Then you are unlimited in the length of the data.

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        Scott Burday, Trinity
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