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Excel connector List rows present in a table transforms numbers to dates

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Posted on by mmeier

I've built an azure logic app to convert excel files to csv and then save the csv files to blob storage. For some reason for some of the files the excel connector converts a number column to a date column. Anyone have any idea what's causing this. So far we couldn't replicate the issue reliably.

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MarkRahn 1,351 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Hi @mmeier,

What Actions in your Logic App are you using to convert your Excel file to CSV? Something similar to this:

Check the Output of the "List rows present in a table" Action to see how the values are coming across from Excel. If the columns with the issues are coming from Excel already formatted as "Date", then try changing the formatting to "Text" in Excel.

You show a value in your example of "659*700". Excel might not know exactly how to handle that unless you explicitly tell it.

Checking the Output of the "List rows present in a table" Action for the Runs where the CSV table generated was incorrect should help you identify why the problem is occurring for certain columns and not others.

In your "List rows present in a table" Action, also check the "DateTime" Format under Advanced parameters:

You could try setting that to Serial Number as well.

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Thanks
-Mark

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mmeier 4 on at

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Hi @MarkRahn

Thanks for taking the time to reply, Here's the answers to your questions.

These are the relevant parts of the logic app:

This is how the column in excel is formatted:

The cell contains a formula so it has to be formatted as Number, not Text.

This is how it arrived in the Excel for Business connector list rows in table:

As you can see, other values arrived just fine. It's only ever this one specific column that is causing this issue. And it-s also not occurring consistently. Sometimes the files run through without any issues.

If I set the DateTime Format to serial I will have an issue with the actual date columns that are also present in the table.

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MarkRahn 1,351 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Hi @mmeier,

Thanks for the details. Based on what you provided, the results are coming from Excel as a DateTime.

To troubleshoot this, temporarily change the Format for that column from Number to Text. Test your Logic App. If the Output from the "List rows present in table" looks correct (not a datetime), you have identified the start of a solution to your problem.

I did a test with Excel where I played with the format of a Calculated column similar to what you are doing. When I changed the format to "Text", the number came across without the "," separator.

We just want to identify if the Format for the column is going to make a difference for the Output of the "List rows present in table" Action.

If "Text" is working, you can try the Format as "Currency" and/or "Accounting" which may force Excel to send the data over as expected.

If "Text" is working but the other formats do not, then you could try to set the Formula for the Column to resolve as text with a formula like:

=TEXT(SUM(A1:B1),"#,##0")

You would replace "SUM(A1:B1)" with whatever your appropriate formula calculation is.

Let me know if any of these things make a difference.

This community is supported by individuals freely devoting their time to answer questions and provide support. They do it to let you know you are not alone. This is a community.

If someone has been able to answer your questions or solve your problem, please click Does this answer your question. This will help others who have the same question find a solution quickly via the forum search.

If someone was able to provide you with more information that moved you closer to a solution, throw them a Like. It might make their day. 😊

Thanks
-Mark

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mmeier 4 on at

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Hi @MarkRahn

Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately, none of these helped. The only thing that did the trick was to copy all the values in a fresh excel template file. I'm guessing some of the files that are in circulation got somehow corrupted. Doesn't really solve the issue, but at least we have a workaround and are not completely stuck.

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MarkRahn 1,351 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Hi mmeier ,

This is really odd. I'm glad you have some sort of workaround, but even then you don't know when it might break.

One thing I thought about to try to narrow things down further (if you wanted to continue to look at things), is to try to open one of the Excel files that exhibits the issue and save it as "CSV". Are the values written to the CSV as DateTime values? If they are, then the issue is somewhere in Excel. If they are not, then the issue is somewhere in how the Logic App Action is handing things.

Is there any way for you to share an example file that has the issue? You may have to create a new question to be able to upload a file. Tag me in the question if you chose to do that and post a link to the question in a reply to this question.

Please click Does this answer your question if my post helped you solve your issue. This will help others find it more readily. It also closes the item. If the content was useful in other ways, please consider giving it a Like.

Thanks -Mark

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