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ConvError: Summarize a String as a Number

Alteryx Certified Partner
Alteryx Certified Partner

I learned something new today that comes with a word of warning.  


Did you know that you can summarize a string with a SUM function?  It is not possible without this little trick.  I was working with a module that did just that.  The way that the original developer must have accomplished this magical feat was to configure the SUMMARIZE function when the field was defined as a NUMBER, then ultimately reset the value back to a string. It works.


Here is the other thing that I learned that could affect you.  If the incoming value is defined as a STRING and you simply cast it to a number you might receive a warning message like:


ConvError: Summarize (5): value: 12,345 stopped converting at a comma. It might be invalid.


This conversion error occurred because the number 12345 had a comma in it.  If you have string values that might contain a comma, beware.  The sum of 10,500 and 12,750 is 22.This happens in a selct too.


ConvError: Select (6): value: 12,345 stopped converting at a comma. It might be invalid.

Alteryx ACE & Top Community Contributor

Alteryx Alumni (Retired)

@MarqueeCrew top work again!

Andy Cooper
Senior Solutions Engineer - EMEA
8 - Asteroid

Hi @MarqueeCrew,


Could you expand on this.  I think I'm running into something similar. All my sales and units sold are in string and I tried the summarize tool to group by product and sum the sales and units sold.  I receive null values when I run it.


Any advice would be great!