Convert column to number

[Salem Ababneh]

Hello amazing community.

I'm learning so much from the community, and I really appreciate everything.

I just want to know how can I change a column from a General type to Number type, in order to sort it as number from Smaller to Largest.

Because I'm trying to transform the column to number by 'toNumber(value)' and it gives:

Thanks again :)

[Ettore Rizza]

Weird, since you use the right formula. What is your version of OpenRefine and your operating system?

By the way: It's a very bad idea to try to turn a phone into a number. A phone number is by essence a string (you do not do calculations on phone numbers). By transforming 078654 in number, you will lose the leading zero, it will become 78654.

[Salem Ababneh]

I'm using the latest OpenRefine 3.0, and my operating system is Windows 10.

I'm trying to change it to number because it is not sorting to number, neither smallest to largest or largest to smallest are working. So I thought that the problem is that it is General type. (I'm trying to do sorting so I can try the solution you gave me in Topic Link.

[Ettore Rizza]

I guess your phone numbers must contain invisible characters that do not please OpenRefine. Could you click on "edit" in any of your cells containing the phone numbers and tell me if you see anything special?

[Salem Ababneh]

Ettore! You did it again!, it appears that there was a space on each one, and I did a trim and it worked perfectly. Thanks again!

[Ettore Rizza]

You're welcome, but I think this is a bug. Normally, a trim is done automatically when using toNumber().

[Salem Ababneh]

Oh okay, I thought it was a bug. I think because OpenRefine 3.0 is still in beta stage.

Thanks again.

[Thad Guidry]

Ettore,

Can you confirm the bug, and if so, open an issue and mark for 3.0 milestone ?  Thanks !

-Thad

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[Ettore RIZZA]

@thad : I am also on Windows 10 and I cannot reproduce the issue. In any case not with normal blank spaces before or after the string to transform in number. It must be another type of non-printable character.

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[Thad Guidry]

Its &nbsp  - Non Breaking Spaces

And specifically because the library we use for trim() does support it https://google.github.io/guava/releases/21.0/api/docs/com/google/common/base/CharMatcher.html#breakingWhitespace--

But we didn't wire that method up in https://github.com/OpenRefine/OpenRefine/blob/master/main/src/com/google/refine/expr/functions/strings/Trim.java#L53

   return CharMatcher.WHITESPACE.trimFrom((String) s1);

We should trim &nbsp as well, ideally...BUT ! there's a huge downside that many folks know and use OpenRefine trim() and have confidence it does not throw away &nbsp's.

But in the case of conversions, we should be throwing them away.

We probably just need to add functionality for throwing away &nbsp's for toNumber() and perhaps toDate() and a few others ?

https://github.com/OpenRefine/OpenRefine/blob/master/main/tests/server/src/com/google/refine/tests/expr/functions/strings/ToFromConversionTests.java

But I would not add handling &nbsp directly for trim() because of the past expectations of not dealing with &nbsp's

-Thad

[Salem Ababneh]

Thank you guys, if you want me to share with you the file please tell me.

Thanks again