Revelation and Advanced Revelation do not have data types. Data is processed as character strings with delimiters. Data types for fields were not required until OpenInsight, primarily for compatibility with SQL databases, which do require data types. With the advent of the ODBC driver, tables and columns (or files and fields, if you prefer) have correct data types, or errors can occur. Some tips are listed below:
Datatyping requires the setting aside of memory when data is transferred between programs. So, if your dictionary datatypes are set to VARCHAR(65531), each field in each record will require about 64k worth of memory, so you'll likely run out of memory very quickly. The workaround is to use a smaller value (typically 255, which is the maximum length for VARCHAR in SQL Server), with the data type. This will not affect the data in your existing database, only the data in the SQL process.
Formatting can also cause problems. In some versions of Excel, output conversions containing dollar signs or dashes can cause issues. We have found problems with the DATETIME, DOLLARS, and FLOAT data types, which do not produce conversions that the ODBC driver can handle easily. The workaround is to create synonym fields with different output conversions.
