Problems evaluating input data

[IE309]

Hi everyone,
I’m new to KNIME and this is my first post.
I have a problem with my KNIME workflow.
I have an excel reader at the beginning of the workflow reading material numbers of 7 digits which are then calculating a value based on these numbers + other worksheets.

In the excel file there is a formula that makes sure that only 7 digit material numbers are inserted. However, whenever they start with a 0, excel deletes the 0 automatically and I have to manually write the correct material number in the cell in order to not have a number of only 6 digits.

KNIME seems to have a problem working with this kind of number (starting with 0) every time and I’m wondering how I can fix this issue.

Can I change something on my excel file or can I use a certain node in KNIME to avoid this error?

Thanks in advance!

[gonhaddock]

Hello @IE309
At some point in your processing, numbers (integers?) are read as numeric.

Aiming to handle seven digits code as text, you can use a ‘String Manipulation’ node with the following code:

padLeft(string($material_numbers$), 7, "0")

BR

[rfeigel]

You can try the transformation function in the Excel Reader node to transform the numbers to strings which should retain the leading 0.