Setting Data Type Conversion Defaults
Data type conversion occurs when a dataflow automatically converts a field to the data type needed by a stage. Data type conversion also occurs when within some stages. For example, in Read from DB you can choose to have a field use the string data type even though the source data is in a numeric data type. The data is converted into the string data type when it is read into the dataflow.
There are two settings that you can use to control data type conversions. First, there are settings that determine how to format numeric, date, and time data converted into a string. For example, you may want date data that is converted into a string to be represented in the format mm/dd/yyyy rather than dd/mm/yyyy. The other setting controls what should happen if the system is unable to convert a field from one data type to another.
You can set the default data type conversion settings for your system in Management Console. You can override the default formats for individual dataflows in Enterprise Designer.
To set the default data type conversion options for your system, follow this procedure.