Forum Discussion
DataFormat.Error when converting numbers with non-breaking spaces
Hi Akhil,
Yes, I did try using "Character.FromNumber(160)" to remove the non-breaking spaces, but that wasn’t the actual cause of the issue.
After some investigation, I found that the problem was related to the SharePoint source implementation level being set to 2.0. This level tries to automatically convert columns to types (text, number, date, etc.). It correctly transforms dots into commas in my case, but doesn’t remove the spaces between thousands and hundreds, which caused an error during the automatic column type conversion.
The solution was either to revert to implementation level 1.0 — which requires manually reformatting all columns (changing types, replacing spaces and dots with commas, etc.) — or to disable the “Thousands separator” option directly in the SharePoint list settings.
I couldn’t find any other workaround while staying on implementation level 2.0.Thanks again for your help!
Best regards,
Hi ItsProtosup
This error happens because the numbers contain non-breaking spaces (Unicode 160) instead of normal spaces, so Power Query reads them as text.
The easiest fix is:
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In Power Query, select the column >> Replace Values >> in “Value To Find” paste the special space (you can copy it directly from one of your values like 2 047) >> leave Replace With empty.
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After that, change the column type to Number and it will work.
If you prefer using a formula, you can also do:
Text.Replace([Column], Character.FromNumber(160), "")then convert to number.
This way "2 047" will correctly turn into 2047.