Describing the incoming fields

When you create a new dataset taking a file as a source, you have to give PDI a proper definition of the fields so that it knows how to interpret the incoming data. In particular, the Date and Numeric fields come in several flavors and we should take some time to configure them manually so that PDI interprets the values correctly.

This also applies to the fields created from scratch; for example, with a Data Grid or an Add constant step.

If you don't specify a format when reading a Date or Numeric field, PDI will do its best to interpret the data, but this could lead to unexpected results.