Last Updated: November 26, 2022

Note: Google Data Studio is now known as Looker Studio.

When you create or edit a data source in Looker Studio, you get the option to select the data type of the data source field. 

One of the data types supported by Looker Studio is ‘numeric’: 

There are three numeric data types in Looker Studio:

#1 Number – select this data type if you want Looker studio to expect a number (includes floating-point number) when processing a field in the underlying data source.

#2 Percent – select this data type if you want Looker studio to expect percentage data when processing a field in the underlying data source.

#3 Duration – select this data type if you want Looker studio to expect time duration in seconds when processing a field in the underlying data source. 

For example, consider the following Google Sheets data source:

The field ‘Number of orders’ is of type ‘number’.

The field ‘Percentage of Sales’ is of type ‘percent’. 

The field ‘Phone Call duration’ is of type ‘duration’.

When we connect this data source to our data source schema then while deciding the data source schema (structure) we should:

• set the data type of the field ‘Number of orders’ to ‘Numbers’.
• set the data type of the field ‘Percentage of Sales’ to ‘Percent’.
• set the data type of the field ‘Phone Call duration’ to ‘Duration’.

Now if we create a report from this data source schema then it would look like the one below:

This report matches with our data source:

The only difference here is that the values of the ‘phone call duration’ field are displayed in a different format.

For example, Looker Studio displayed 230 seconds as 00:03:50

If you convert 230 seconds into minutes, it would be 230/60 = 3.83 minutes or 3 minutes 50 Seconds

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Using incorrect numeric data types

Consider the following Google Sheets data source:

The field ‘Number of orders’ is of type ‘Number’

The field ‘Percentage of Sales’ is of type ‘Percent’

The field ‘Phone Call duration’ is of type ‘Duration’.

When we connect this data source to our data source schema then while deciding the data source schema (structure) we should:

• set the data type of the field ‘Number of orders’ to ‘Numbers’.
• set the data type of the field ‘Percentage of Sales’ to ‘Percent’.
• set the data type of the field ‘Phone Call Duration’ to ‘Duration’.

But what if, when deciding the data source schema (structure):

• we set the data type of the field ‘Number of orders’ to ‘Duration’
• we set the data type of the field ‘Percentage of Sales’ to ‘Number’
• we set the data type of the field ‘Phone Call duration’ to ‘Percent’

Then this is what our Looker Studio report would look like:

Looker Studio will automatically convert all the values of the:

• ‘Number of Orders’ field to ‘Duration’ data type
• ‘Percentage of Sales’ field to ‘Number’ data type
• ‘Phone Call Duration’ field to ‘Percent’ data type

So, when you select an incorrect numeric data type while defining the data source schema, you get incorrect/unexpected data in your reports.

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