Currency and Date support

[carlos_yza]

Airtable, we need the possibility to change Currency , Date , etc depending on our Country. I post some suggestions just to help . Airtable its incredible, but this its critical because we cannot import files.

Thanks !

[W_Vann_Hall]

carlos_yza:

this its critical because we cannot import files.

Well, actually you can; you just need to import currency and date values as strings and then define additional fields to parse them into the desired values. Not optimal, but it allows you to use Airtable until internationalization is complete.

For instance, to convert a numeric value with '.' thousands delimiters and ',' decimal indicator, use this formula:

VALUE(
    SUBSTITUTE(
        SUBSTITUTE(
            {ImportedValue},
            ','
            ,''
            ),
        '.',
        ''
        )
    )/100

Other variations can easily be supported – although ones using '-' or '/' will need a little tweaking if support for negative or fractional values is also required.

Data output is a little trickier, but elsewhere I’ve provided a suite of currency and number ‘pretty-print’ routines that support user-specified thousands, decimal, and currency indicators.

Again, this isn’t the long-term solution that full internationalization would be, but it may be enough to allow you to begin building on Airtable.

[carlos_yza]

Thank you, i appreciate your help !

Lets hope Airtable also takes care of his International Customers, because for me its an incredible product that really helps me. But again, Currency its critical when you are using a lot of Databases and share with different customers .

[Bill_French]

carlos_yza:

Currency its critical when you are using a lot of Databases

Carlos,

I agree - it is really important to render the data suitable for the users. And it is customary to depend on vendors such as Airtable to make this seamless and easy.

As @W_Vann_Hall pointed out, casting the data after the import process is possible and while it is a little more work, this approach actually comes with a key benefit – you will then know how to recast data to support any international user.

This is a skill and a process you want because no vendor will ever have every language nuance you may need. In my view, you need to get really good at shaping data because no product ever seems to handle every requirement when it comes to international users and customers.

Another way is to use the API to ingest data instead of importing it. This has added advantages as well -

• It eliminates manual recasting of data values.
• Encourages a thoughtful schema.
• Provides a repeatable process that can be automated.