Adding Data: Numbers and Text in the Same Dimension

[Chris-Southbank]

Hello! I have found that if you have more than 50% number values in a dimension that also contains text, whenever you try to add a table, all the text values are aggregated together (with any blanks) as "null", whilst only the numbers and their counts are displayed correctly. If you have less than 50% numbers, then all number and text values are displayed with their counts properly. This is causing me a problem as I want to show all the text values as well as the number values, and my data has more than 50% numbers. When imported, the data type is set to number by default, but changing this to text in Data Sources doesn't help.

Please, does anyone know how to override this? Thank you.

[lauratilton · Accepted solution]

What is your original data source and is that field set to a string/text in your source (Sheets, BQ, etc). If you just want to force the field to be text, the easiest thing is to create a calculated text field using CAST. 

https://support.google.com/looker-studio/answer/7280720?hl=en

[Chris-Southbank]

Hi Laura,

Thank you, you have solved my problem! In the Google Sheet, selecting the data and choosing Format > Number > Plain Text gave me the result I wanted. The problem I have can be modelled with a column containing the heading TextNumbersField then 10 random letters out of A, B, C and D, and 10 random numbers out of 1 to 5. Trying to create a new dimension with the formula CAST(TextNumbersField AS TEXT) didn't seem to have any effect. In the link it says that it doesn't work for aggregated data... I don't know if this is why it doesn't work. Thanks again!