Converting the Field Type of a Custom Field
NetSuite supports field type conversions for some custom field types. After you have created a custom field, you can edit the type definition to change the Type field to another supported field type. Whenever possible, you should avoid changing a field type. For more information, see Creating a Custom Field.
If you try to convert a field type that is not supported, you will lose data. For a list of supported field types, see Supported Field Type Conversions.
Custom field filters are type sensitive. If you change the type of a custom field, filters defined for the field can become incompatible. This incompatibility results in unexpected errors when a form containing the field is displayed. If you plan to change a custom field’s type, review any existing filters defined for the field and remove or change these filters to avoid errors. For information about field filtering, see Setting Filtering Criteria.
You cannot change the custom field type if the Type is used for criteria in duplicate detection. For more information about duplicate detection, see Setting Up Duplicate Detection.
Before you convert the field type of a custom field, confirm that you need to change the field type. You may not need to convert the field type if:
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You use the field only to store data but do not use it anywhere else in NetSuite. In this case, you can have two parallel fields of data, meaning the original field and the new field.
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You use the field only as criteria to search for a specific value. In this case, you have an alternate option to create the new field and add a condition to the field in the Criteria subtab of a search. The results display a row for the original field and a row for the new field.
When large numbers of records are affected, converting a field type can take a significant amount of time to run. During the time that the conversion is running, the system is unusable. Therefore, you should consider running the conversion during off-peak hours. Before running the conversion, you should also verify the number of affected records to decide if you want to continue with the field type conversion. For information, see Verifying the Amount of Data for Conversion.
When large numbers of records are affected, a timeout can occur during the conversion process. If a timeout occurs, all data changes revert to the state they were in prior to the conversion. Field customizations made prior to clicking Save are lost, but the data itself remains in its reverted state. You can try to run the conversion again during off-peak hours.
Alternately, you can convert the field types by performing a mass update or running a mass update script.
For more information, see Converting Field Types for Custom Fields Using Mass Update (SuiteAnswers article: 98734 ).
See the following Topics: