Retain Leading zeros at the time of importing data into Dynamics CRM

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Posted on by Srini20

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Hi,

I am trying to import around 50000 records that have 3 columns that contains leading zeros and other two columns have few single quotes in name column. Single quotes are repeated in the name column.

I am trying to import these with single shot but facing below problem.

Leading zeros are not retained when tried with excel import then i converted this to .txt file but facing error because of single quotes in name column.

I have work around to import by writing a small component by checking the length and append the zeros through console app after importing the data through spread sheet but i am looking for a better approach through import.

I guess we can achieve this through XML import but unable to figure out how to prepare the XML file for my custom entity. Can any one suggest if we have any better approach. I am using 2016 CRM online.

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Community Member on at

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Hi SVN,

proceed as follows:

1) prepend to all zeros a strange character like § or | (pipe)

2) save excel into csv format with utf-8 encoding

3) open csv saved file and replace the strange charcter used (§ or |) with empty

4) upload csv

5) you are done! :-)

Hope it helps!

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Francesco Picchi

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Consultant, Bologna+Milano, ITALY

Independent Contractor

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ashlega 34,477 on at

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Hi,

What is the data type of those attributes in Dynamics?

I think leading zeroes should be retained for text fields and they won't be retained for the numeric fields.

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Syed Ibrahim 6,257 on at

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As alex rightly pointed , Unless the field is String we cant retain leading zero.

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Aric Levin - MVP 30,190 Moderator on at

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If all else fails, you can always use SSIS with Kingswaysoft to import your file (from Visual Studio).

Should not take you very long to create a package.

You can clean your data as part of the import process if necessary.

Hope this helps.

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ashlega 34,477 on at

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But even Kingsway won't help if it's a whole number:))

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Aric Levin - MVP 30,190 Moderator on at

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Of course not. Thanks. Should have added that.

That is in case the data types in CRM are the correct data types.

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Community Member on at

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Hi SVN,

if you solved the problem thanks to an answer, please mark it as verified to encourage the community to provide more and more a better support. Thank you. Francesco

If you found the answer helpful, please mark as Verified

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Thank You & Best Regards

Francesco Picchi

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Consultant, Bologna+Milano, ITALY

Independent Contractor

http://www.francescopicchi.com

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Srini20 397 on at

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Thanks every one. I was away for some time. I tried a different approach by converting the excel into .xml and then copied all my spread sheet content into each column. That worked.

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Srini20 397 on at

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Thank you, this works i guess but i tried the approach that i mentioned above.

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