IQSS / IQSS/dataverse

XLSX ingestion: integers are converted to decimal numbers

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#11,894 6 comments 0 reactions 1 assignee View on GitHub

@pizofreude is already working on this.

Since Oct 14, 2025.

Original size: 10 Type: Bug
Dominant language
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Description

Bug description

This follows a discussion in the Google Group Dataverse:
https://groups.google.com/g/dataverse-community/c/75OO7gDNpsw/

When ingesting an XLSX file, any non-zero numeric value is always interpreted as a decimal number.
This results in integers being automatically converted into decimals:

  • 22.0
  • -2-2.0
  • 2.52.5

This behavior can be problematic in some use cases (e.g., phone numbers, street numbers).

Notes:

  • This issue does not occur when ingesting a CSV file, where integers remain integers.
  • Reproducible example dataset: test dataset.
Steps to reproduce
  1. Create an XLSX file containing a column with integer values.
  2. Ingest into Dataverse.
  3. Observe that all integers are converted into decimals.
Expected behavior
  • Keep integers as integers during ingestion unless a decimal value is explicitly present.
    • 22
    • -2-2
    • 2.52.5
Impact
  • Incorrect data representation in business contexts.
  • Inconsistency between XLSX ingestion and CSV ingestion.
Affected versions
  • All versions of Dataverse
Help is always welcome, is this bug something you or your organization plan to fix?
  • This is not currently planned by the team.

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Assessment

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