Converting data from the old system to Dynamics NAV's needs
The company's legacy system will probably have a very different data structure. However, in the meantime, a conversion process must be done. In this section, we'll explain a few tips to convert data to meet Dynamics NAV's needs.
In most of the Dynamics NAV tables (including all master and document tables), the primary key uses a code field type. The code field type is alphanumeric and is stored in the database in uppercase characters. You can write either numbers or characters in a Code field. If a code contains only numbers, people expect the data to be ordered by a number. But Dynamics NAV does not act this way. A code is always sorted by a character, even if it only contains numbers. This may confuse the user, so using fixed-length number codes is recommended. Let's look at this with an example:
|
Number Sort |
Dynamics NAV Sort |
Fixed length Sort |
|---|---|---|
|
1 |
1 |
01 |
|
2 |
10 |
02 |
|
3 |
2 |
03 | ...
