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IntegrationsIntegrations 

Change Text type field to Formula type field

Hello -
 
We have fields on some custom objects that we currently populate through nightly integrations.  We would like to change that and have them be populated with a SF formula.  My SF Administrator tried to change the field type from text to formula but was unable to.  Is there some reason that we are unable to make that change??  It looks like we are required to create an entirely new formula field and delete the old??  This will require alot of work in our integrations and back office reporting of the replciated SF data to accomodate for an entirely new field.  Any idea's??
 
Thanks, Tammy
NPMNPM
It might depend on your reason to use a formula field.  You do not necessarily need to delete the old field.  If you just do not want to see it on a page take it off the page layout, the data will still be available to the intergrations and reporting. We have does this with several fields we get from an integration in text format and use formula fields to convert to Date, Phone, Currency, etc.  If you really do need to fully replace the old field, then yes it is true you can not do a change field type to Formula and need to create new, delete old.
IntegrationsIntegrations

Ok, so tell me if this is possible....

1.  Create the new formula field to populate via SF.

2.  Leave the old text field in existance but populate it by referencing the newly created formula field???

Then, I could just switch the integrations to the new field over time as I make changes to them.....
NPMNPM
Perhaps you could try to populate the old text field using Workflow/Field Update. 
nicksquashnicksquash
Is it possible to delete the old field and create a new field, but give it the same API name as the old field so all the integration work still points to it?
IntegrationsIntegrations

Hey great point!!  That should totally work....dah!!

Thanks, Tammy
smaheshwari1@kedrionusa.comsmaheshwari1@kedrionusa.com

DId that wrok deleteing old field and creating new one with same API
Sol2012Sol2012
Be careful with that approach: deleting a field will also remove it from all filters in reports... even if you re-create it later!