IQSS / IQSS/dataverse

Unwanted extra decimals when ingesting XLSX with text

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Type: Bug
Dominant language
Java
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Description

When ingesting an .xlsx file into Dataverse, if a row contains text in a column, the other rows in that column have their numeric values altered with unwanted extra decimals.

Example:

The value 4.31343 becomes 4.3134300000000003.

👉 This behavior is not observed with a CSV file, where numeric values are preserved correctly.

An example of this behavior is available in the following dataset:
https://demo.dataverse.org/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.70122/FK2/VKQOK1

Steps to reproduce:

  1. Import an Excel file containing both numbers and text in the same column.
  2. Check the ingested data.
  3. Observe that some numbers have unwanted additional decimals.

Expected result:
Numeric values should be preserved exactly, without extra decimals.

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First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reproducing the XLSX import with the dataset linked in the issue, using a column containing both text and numbers, and compare the result with CSV ingestion. Trace the XLSX ingestion path to identify where numeric values gain extra decimals; done means values such as 4.31343 remain unchanged after import.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
java
Domain
data
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Clearly specified
Newbie friendliness
45/100

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