Last Updated: December 10, 2022

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

The data type of a data source schema field determines the kind of data to expect (in the connected data source) when processing the field.

For example,

When the data type of a field is ‘Number’, it tells Looker Studio to expect a number when processing the field:

When the data type of a field is ‘Currency (US – Dollars) ’, it tells Looker Studio to expect currency data in US dollars when processing the field:

Similarly,

When the data type of a field is ‘Text’, it tells Looker Studio to expect text data when processing the field:

The data type also determines which operations are allowed and not allowed on a data source schema field.

For example, you can’t apply an arithmetic function to a ‘Text’ field or use a ‘Number’ field as the date range dimension in a report.

If you want to change the data type of a field then just click on the drop-down menu next to a data type.

Note: Changing the field type can have a considerable impact on how you see your data in reports.

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Data types supported in Looker Studio

Google Looker Studio supports the following data types:

1. Numeric
2. Text
3. Date and Time
4. Boolean
5. Geo
6. Currency
7. URL
8. Image
9. Image link

#1 Numeric data types

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:

Here,

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:

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

To learn more about numeric data types in Looker Studio read the following two articles:

#1 Looker Studio Number Formats / Data Types

#2 Doing Basic Maths on Numeric Fields via Calculated Fields

#2 Text data type

Select the ‘Text’ data type if you want Looker Studio to expect text when processing a field in the underlying data source. A text data type can include any combination of letters, numbers, special symbols (like [, }, @….) and other characters.

Consider the following Google Sheets data source:

Here all the values of the field ‘Customers Name’ are of type ‘Text’. So when defining the data source schema, we would set the data type of the field ‘Customers Name’ to ‘Text’:

To learn more about the text data types, read this article: How to Work with ‘Text’ Data Type in Looker Studio

#3 Date and time data types

As you can see from the screenshot, Looker Studio supports several different types of date and time.

The data types for ‘date’ fields can be divided into the following two categories:

#1 Absolute dates – It refers to a specific date that you can point to on a calendar.

#2 Relative dates – It refers to a date that you can not point to on a calendar.

The data types for ‘time’ fields can be divided into the following two categories:

#1 Absolute time – It refers to a specific time that is accompanied by an absolute date.

#2 Relative time – It refers to a specific time that is not accompanied by an absolute date.

To learn more about the date and time data types in Looker Studio read this article: Tutorial on Date and Time Data Types in Looker Studio

#4 Boolean data type

If a data field in your data source can have only one of the two possible values: true or false then you should use the Boolean data type while setting up your data source schema:

To learn more about working with the boolean data type, read this article: How to work with Boolean data type in Looker Studio

#5 Geo data types

Use ‘Geo’ data type if you want Looker Studio to expect a geographic region (like a city, region, country, continent) when processing a field in the specified data set.

Following are the various Geo data types available in Looker Studio:

To learn more about the geo data types, read this article: Geo Data – Country, Region, Latitude, Longitude in Looker Studio

#6 URL data type

Use the ‘URL’ data type if you want Looker Studio to expect a URL when processing a field in the underlying data source:

#7 Currency data type

Use the ‘Currency’ data type if you want Looker Studio to expect a currency when processing a field in the underlying data source.

#8 Image data type

Use the ‘Image’ data type if you want Looker Studio to expect the URLs of images when processing a field in the underlying data source:

Note(1): The ‘Image’ data type is used for only those fields which return data of type image. Such fields are called image fields.

Note(2): The image fields are used to display images in the data table of a report.

To learn more about image data type in Looker Studio, read this article: Image data type in Looker Studio

#9 Image link data type

The ‘Image Link’ data type is used for those fields which contain clickable images.

If you want to display clickable images in the data table of a report then you would need to use a field of the ‘Image Link’ data type.

Related articles

• Image Link data type in Looker Studio
• Image function in Looker Studio

Other articles on Looker Studio

1. Looker Studio Alternative – Whatagraph
2. Looker Studio Parameters explained with examples
3. Looker Studio Number Formats / Data Types
4. How to Change Language in Looker Studio
5. Looker Studio Date Format and Time Explained
6. Looker Studio Tutorial with FREE PDF ebook
7. Looker Studio Functions, Formulas Tutorial
8. How to work with the Boolean field in Looker Studio
9. Looker Studio Page Navigation Tutorial
10. Understanding Report Editor in Looker Studio
11. Best practices for creating a report in Looker Studio
12. How to share reports in Looker Studio
13. Seven methods to create a new report in Looker Studio
14. Looker Studio Report Tutorial
15. How to invite people to view or edit a report in Looker Studio
16. How to share the link of your report in Looker Studio
17. Schedule email delivery of a report in Looker Studio
18. How to download Looker Studio report as PDF
19. How to embed a Looker Studio report on a website
20. Image function in Looker Studio
21. Image Link data type in Looker Studio
22. Image data type in Looker Studio
23. Looker Studio Geo Map – Latitude Longitude
24. Why You Should Avoid Using Functions and Calculated Fields in Looker Studio
25. Looker Studio Calculated Fields Tutorial
26. Working with the Text data type in Looker Studio
27. The Data Set Configuration Error in Looker Studio
28. Data Source Fields in Looker Studio – Tutorial
29. Refresh data source schema fields in Looker Studio
30. Looker Studio Data Sources – Tutorial
31. Looker Studio Dimension vs Metric
32. How to filter by email in Looker Studio
33. Looker Studio – Sharing Data Sources (aka data source schema)
34. Field editing in reports – Looker Studio
35. Data Source Version History in Looker Studio
36. Community Visualization Access in Looker Studio
37. Understanding Data Source Credentials in Looker Studio
38. Understanding Data Freshness in Looker Studio
39. How to create and configure a data source in Looker Studio
40. Looker Studio Aggregation Explained
41. How to Edit a Calculated Field in Looker Studio
42. Formula Rejection in Looker Studio
43. Doing Basic Maths on Numeric Fields via Calculated Fields