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Joachim2108
Helper I
Helper I

Decimal separator missing when importing data

Hi all,

 

I'm stuck with a very annoying issue - when I import data via an ODBC driver (connected to ERP software called Microsoft XAL), the decimals in the numerical collumns disappear! 

 

E.g. 2.500,50 turns into 250054 or 1,5 turns into 15.

 

The IT staff say the ERP system has an American file format (decimal separator as a period), and when data is exported to Excel, it automatically recognises the difference and converts it to the european standard (decimal separator as a comma) without any issue.

 

I also know that there is an option in Power BI to change regional settings, and I have tried many different combinations. However when I do so for the current file (Locale), and update the query, it registers errors in most of the collumns, and gives me the following message: 

Reguionalsettingschanged.PNG

 

Any ideas as to what is going wrong? Any solutions would be of great help. Thanks in advance.

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

The solution in the end had to do with how I import my data. My organisation uses an Oracle Database (a very old 32 bit version), and when getting data, I would select "ODBC" which would then result in the issue of missing decimals. 

 

The solution in the end was simply to select "Oracle database" when importing data. No issues followed after that.

View solution in original post

8 REPLIES 8
Syndicate_Admin
Administrator
Administrator

Hello, I imagine you have already solved the problem, however, for people looking for an answer to this dilemma, what worked for me was to consult the values that do not appear correctly, add the function To_number (column) and in this way identify it as a number.

I hope it works for you.

The solution in the end had to do with how I import my data. My organisation uses an Oracle Database (a very old 32 bit version), and when getting data, I would select "ODBC" which would then result in the issue of missing decimals. 

 

The solution in the end was simply to select "Oracle database" when importing data. No issues followed after that.

selimovd
Super User
Super User

Hey @Joachim2108 ,

 

after the first step in importing the data in Power Query change the type using locale: 

4.png

 

 Then change the format to to decimal number and region United States:

5.png

Afterwards you will have the numbers in the right format.

 

If you need any help please let me know.
If I answered your question I would be happy if you could mark my post as a solution ✔️ and give it a thumbs up 👍
 
Best regards
Denis
 

Hi Denis,

Changing regional settings does not seem to work. When I do change the settings (Using Locale), Power BI gives me the message that i posted in my original post.

DataZoe
Employee
Employee

@Joachim2108 I would try to bring the column in as text, then replace the commas with periods, and then change the type back to decimal in the transform data screen. You may need to go up the applied steps a bit to before it intitally tries to change to to a decimal.

Respectfully,
Zoe Douglas (DataZoe)



Follow me on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/zoedouglas-data
See my reports and blog at https://www.datazoepowerbi.com/

Hi DataZoe,

The issue is that I can see this in the preview window before loading the data, that there is no decimal separator at all. So when transforming the data, there is no comma or period to replace unfortunately.

Hi amitchandak,
Changing regional settings does not seem to work. When I do change the settings (Using Locale), Power BI gives me the message that i posted in my original post.

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