Hi. I propose there should be an optional argument that forces all columns to be Character Data Type for both the Open() and Multiple File Import() commands. This request is similar to, but not exactly the same, as these 2 requests:
https://community.jmp.com/t5/JMP-Wish-List/Excel-Import-specific-column-types-or-formats/idi-p/248136
https://community.jmp.com/t5/Discussions/Force-column-from-CSV-import-as-Character-not-Numeric-Date/m-p/260752#M51078
The first link requests the ability to manually specify column data type for Excel files in the Open() GUI, whereas my request is addressing usage of the Open() command in a script, not the GUI, and applies to both csv and xlsx files. The second link appears to apply only to MFI() and csv files, whereas, I would like this ability for both MFI() and Open(), and for both csv and xlsx files.
I realize there exist various scripting methods that could do this for certain scenarios, although not all. Some of these methods might require you to know the column names/locations in advance, or require that the column names always be on the first row. This is not something we necessarily have control over.
I feel having a single option to set would simplify this greatly for many users. Also, this would save time since JMP would not need to spend time scanning the file to detect column data type. Lastly, my feeling is that this could be low-hanging fruit to implement, in that you'd just be turning off the portion of the internal code that scans each column.
Hope this is possible. Thanks.
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