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Glossary

Type coercion

Converting a value from one data type to another, such as the text 1,200 to the number 1200. It may be requested, or done automatically by software.

Automatic coercion is a frequent source of damage: identifiers that lose their leading zeros, and codes that are turned into dates.

Where it comes up

  • Numbers stored as textA column of quantities contains symbols, separators, or words that stop software reading it as numbers.

See also

  • Data typeThe kind of value a column holds, such as text, whole number, decimal, date, or true and false. The type decides what operations make sense.
  • ParsingReading text and working out its structure: turning the characters 03/04/2025 into a date, or one line of a file into separate fields.

Karg checks for many of these when it profiles a file, applies the fixes it is confident about, and sets the rest aside for your review. See how it works, or have our team clean your data for you.