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Column Types

Column Types are autodetected from the spreadsheet data when you import a file or connect a Google Sheet.

A column type is selected for every column in the Sheet. The type controls how a column is displayed, whether it can be plotted on a number or date axis, and how it can be aggregated.

To make sure your columns are detected correctly, format your data for import first: keep one value type per column and put the column names in the first row.

Text and categories

Categorical values become the labels and groups in your charts.

TypeUse it forExample
TextNames, labels, and general categoriesNorth America
BooleanYes/no or true/false valuestrue
Integer CategoryWhole numbers treated as categories instead of a number axis1, 2, 3
IdIdentifier values that label a record1024
UUIDSoftware-generated unique identifiers, treated as text9f1c2a7e…

Numbers

Numeric columns can be plotted on a value axis and aggregated (sum, average, count, and more).

  • Integer Whole numbers
  • Big Integer Whole numbers greater than one billion
  • Decimal Numbers with a fractional component
  • Percent Numbers with a %
  • Currency Numbers with currency symbols
  • Year Subset of integer, displayed as a year without a thousands separator

Dates and time

  • Date General date type. American date formats accepted MM/DD/YYYY
  • Timestamp Dates with hours, minutes and seconds, in ISO-8601 format

Structured values

These columns hold more than one value per cell. InstaCharts parses them so they display correctly in the data table, and they can be broken apart into simpler columns with Transform Data.

  • Object A JSON object in a single cell, ex: {"a":1,"b":2}
  • Array A list of values in a single cell, ex: [1,2,3,4,5]
  • Multiple Choice Several comma-separated selections in one cell, ex: Chrome, Firefox. Common for survey data.

Overriding a Type

Open a column’s header menu on the Data tab and choose a different type to override the autodetected one. Most types can be set this way. Integer Category, Big Integer, Boolean, and Id are detected automatically when they’re the best match for a column, but can’t be manually forced from the header menu.