Change the data type of existing property

Question

Hi All, 
 
 What is the best move to do when you want to change the data type of an existing property definition? 
 In this case our client created a property with a data type Number (integer) after a year they noticed that there's a limitation when using number integer and they want to change the data type to a text. In M-Files rules it cannot modify the data type of a property definition that already has a value in more objects. 
 Is there a way to transfer all the existing values in metadata card into new property definition? 
 Any suggestions are appreciated. 
 Thank you! 
 -Mess

Joonas Linkola · Accepted Answer

This is one option to copy values to a text property using built-in functionality: 
 
 Create the new property definition 
 In the Automatic Values tab, set simple concatenation and add the existing property as a placeholder 
 Add the text property to the class(es) where the number property is used 
 Recalculate the automatic value of the text property 
 Go back to the property definition settings and remove the automatic value setting ("No automatic value"). Now it's a normal user-defined property. 
 
 Note that if there can be objects from other classes where users have added that number property to the object metadata manually (i.e. not coming from class settings), you need to deal with these separately.

Messiah · Answer

Hi Joonas, 
 
 Got it. I really appreciate the information and advice you have shared. 
 
 Cheers!! 
 -Mess

Change the data type of existing property

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