All Fields Showing as Text in API Datasource

Adhoc
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#1

Hello Team,

While using an API as a datasource in Helical Insight 6.1 GA, we observed that all fields are being detected as text/string datatype, even for numeric values.

Why is this happening? Is there any way to fix it?

Thanks,
Vema.

#2

Hello,

This issue occurs due to the format of the API response, not because of Helical Insight itself.

Root Cause:

In your API response, all values are enclosed in double quotes (" " ), for example:

{
"id": "101",
"amount": "5000",
"price": "99.99"
}

Here:

  • Ideally only text/string values should be enclosed in quotes
  • Even numeric values (id , amount , price ) are returned as strings
  • Because of this, Helical Insight interprets all fields as text datatype

Why this happens:

Helical Insight determines the datatype based on the actual JSON values:

  • "123" → treated as string
  • 123 → treated as integer/number

Since your API is sending everything inside quotes, the system has no way to identify numeric types correctly.

Solution:

Fix at API level (Recommended)

Modify the API response to return numeric values without quotes:

{
"id": 101,
"amount": 5000,
"price": 99.99
}

Why this works:

  • Proper JSON typing allows Helical Insight to correctly infer:
    • Integer
    • Decimal
    • String

Alternative (if API cannot be changed):

  • You may need to handle type conversion at reporting level (calculated fields or casting using the DBFunctions option), but this is not ideal.

Thank You,
Helical Insight.