Salesforce App Builder Practice Exam

Can you change an auto-number field to text and retain data?

1. True

2. False

3. Only in specific editions.

4. Only by creating a new field.

The correct answer is: False

An auto-number field is designed to generate unique, sequential numbers automatically and is treated differently by the Salesforce platform compared to text fields. When you attempt to change an auto-number field to a text field, the system does not allow that conversion while retaining the original data, because the intrinsic properties and functionality of an auto-number field cannot be simply altered. During the change, the underlying structure that maintains the sequenced number format would not align with the flexible nature of a text field. Therefore, any pre-existing data generated by the auto-number would not be carried forward when switching its data type to text. This restriction ensures the integrity of data types and adheres to Salesforce's data handling standards. Thus, it is not possible to change an auto-number field to a text field and keep the existing data intact without using a different method, such as creating a new text field and migrating the values.