Ensure non-dates stay non-dates
When Data-flo output column is erroneously interpreted as datetimes by other software
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When Data-flo output column is erroneously interpreted as datetimes by other software
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When you export from Data-flo and open the data in another program (e.g. Microreact or Excel), a column containing Sample IDs is getting interpreted as date-times, even though they are meant to be text.
This is not caused by an error in Data-flo, but by preferences in the other programs. Data-flo can be used to prevent the problem.
Determine a character you can prepend to the problematic Sample IDs column. In this example, we'll use a hash #
source=sample_id
pattern is everything in the sample_id field /^(.+)$/
^ and $anchor the start & end of the field, () designate a capture group to reference in the replacement, and .+ means any character any number of times. See .
replacement is #$1 (where $1 means everything you’ve selected)