Generate ready-to-use formulas for converting between Anaplan data types
💡 How it works: Select your source and target data types, provide optional context (like line item names), and get a step-by-step formula that's ready to paste into Anaplan.
Anaplan enforces strict data types on every line item. Unlike Excel, where cells can freely mix numbers, text, and dates, Anaplan requires you to explicitly define a line item's format — and then convert between formats using formulas. Understanding how conversions work is essential for integrating data from external systems and building flexible models.
When data arrives from an external system as text (e.g., "12345.67"), you need to convert it to a Number format line item before you can perform arithmetic. Anaplan's VALUE() function handles this conversion.
Basic conversion: VALUE(Text Line Item)
Safe conversion (handles blanks): IF Text Line Item <> "" THEN VALUE(Text Line Item) ELSE 0
Be careful with text that contains commas as thousands separators or currency symbols — VALUE() will fail on those. You may need to strip the characters first using SUBSTITUTE() before converting.
Date conversions are among the most common pain points for Anaplan model builders integrating with external systems. Data often arrives in formats like "2024-01-15", "01/15/2024", or "15-Jan-24", and you need to convert these into Anaplan Date format line items.
ISO format (YYYY-MM-DD): DATE(VALUE(LEFT(Text,4)), VALUE(MID(Text,6,2)), VALUE(RIGHT(Text,2)))
US format (MM/DD/YYYY): DATE(VALUE(RIGHT(Text,4)), VALUE(LEFT(Text,2)), VALUE(MID(Text,4,2)))
The DATE(year, month, day) function constructs a date from three numeric components. The key is extracting the year, month, and day values from your text string using LEFT, RIGHT, and MID, then converting each to a number with VALUE() before passing to DATE().
List-formatted line items store a reference to a list member, not a text string. When you need the display name of a list item as text — for concatenation, export, or display purposes — use the NAME() function.
List to text: NAME(List Line Item)
Text to list: FINDITEM(List Name, Text Line Item)
The reverse — converting a text value back to a list item — uses FINDITEM(). This is essential when you receive identifiers from an external system as text and need to map them to Anaplan list members for lookups and aggregations. FINDITEM is case-sensitive, so ensure your text values exactly match the list member names.
NaN (Not a Number) appears when VALUE() tries to convert text it can't parse as a number. Common causes include: invisible spaces (use TRIM()), currency symbols, comma thousands separators, or truly non-numeric text. Add an ISNUMBER check or guard with an IF statement as shown above.
No. Unlike some BI tools, Anaplan does not auto-detect date formats from text strings. You must explicitly parse the year, month, and day components and construct the date using the DATE() function. This requires knowing the exact format of your incoming data.
A Date line item stores a specific calendar date (e.g., January 15, 2024). A Time Period is Anaplan's native time dimension — the columns across your model (months, quarters, years). These are different things. You can convert a Date value to a time period reference using PERIOD() or by comparing dates with the built-in time functions like MONTHVALUE() and YEARVALUE().