Hello All,
We migrated this week our version of dhis 2, from 2.34 to 2.37.
In the Data Visualizer module, downloading data in excel saves numbers as text, which makes it difficult for health workers to manipulate the data.
Hi @didate
Congratulations on the migration! It’s possible in spreadsheet software to change the column/row (cell) data type. Is the 733, the correct value? If it is then it’s possible to change the data type to number. Another question is whether this happens when importing the file to Google Sheets or other spreadsheet software (to ensure it’s not in the excel settings).
For example, in Google sheets from the Format menu the Number tab gives an option to select the data type.
If the suggestion above isn’t as expected nor helpful, please could you share the steps to reproduce or a file with dummy data for more testing?
Thanks!
Hello @Gassim
Yes values are correct.
Yes it is even possible to convert to number with excel. but this conversion could be complicated for the agents in the field.
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Hi Mamadou
Why do the staff need to use Excel spreadsheets, why are they not manipulating the data in the actual pivot tables themselves?
Is teaching Pivot tables too difficult or are there other reasons for needing to download the Pivots?
Norah
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Very good question! @Norah_Stoops 
@didate Yes, you are right, it might not be easy for all users in the field. Although, @Norah_Stoops’s question is very important. If you’d like to share the use case and the scenario that requires this step, it might help to bring a solution from within the platform as Norah suggested. 
I tested and when I open in excel it shows me the same error “Number stored as text.” BTW, when importing to Google Sheets, we don’t face this issue. (:
For quick testing, I uploaded the file I downloaded from the Data Visualizer app. Would you like to create a jira bug issue so that we can triage to the software team to have a look?
data.xls (5 KB)
Thank you!
Hello @Gassim and @Norah_Stoops , thank you for your message.
There are many reasons to export data in excel (to do analyzes that DHIS2 does not allow, to share the data with your superiors who do not have time to connect to DHIS2, to process and import them in another system, in short …) 
I saw that it’s a bug that was fixed in the last patch of 2.39 (2.39.1)
Hope it will be fix on the next patch of 2.37
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