# Power Query Fails to Convert Data Type, Error Persists



## Ichabod871 (Jan 11, 2018)

Hello,

I have a power query pulling from a CSV file. I have set the data type in one of the columns as text, but there are errors that claim power query could not convert the data in the column to a number. I have tried refreshing the query. I've tried converting to a different data type then converting back to text. I've tried saving and reopening. Nothing works. Please help. Thanks in advance. And let me just take this moment to say I despise Microsoft and their crappy products. There, now I feel just a little better....


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## MarcelBeug (Jan 13, 2018)

Maybe you just have a crappy query of a crappy csv file.
We can't help you if you don't share these (may be dummy data as long as it  has the same issue).


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## macfuller (Jan 13, 2018)

Without the data it's hard to say.  The data in the column may not be all of the type you expect.  Sometimes PQ will not know which transformation to apply in order to convert the outliers.  Check the column for errors to ensure that the data is all of the type you expect.

For example, PeopleSoft has a known issue where certain characters like copyright and registered symbols in a text field will blow up its export to .csv.  The characters are misinterpreted as EOF or EOL and it misaligns several subsequent rows of data.  We have to tweak the files so that PQ will recognize those rows as errors.


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