KB275398: Metric values get exported as text when exporting to Microsoft Excel in MicroStrategy Developer 10.1.

SUMMARY:
This issue has been classified as a designed behavior by Strategy.  The impact is limited to Strategy 10.1 product when performing an export for a report where the data type of a metric is big Integer in the Database. A workaround is available in the current document.
 
SYMPTOM:
When performing an export to Microsoft Excel in Strategy Developer 10.1, if the database column in the warehouse is Big Integer, the value of the metric will get exported as text.
 
STEPS TO REPRODUCE:

1. Create a fact based on a column of data type Big Integer in the Database.
2. Create a metric based off that fact and put it in a report.
3. Perform an export of the created report to Microsoft Excel and notice that the metric value gets exported as text:

CAUSE:
This behavior is by design in Strategy 10.1. Beginning in this release, we started supporting the Big Integer data type, and this gets interpreted as a ‘longlong’ data type; in Microsoft Excel, this exceeds the limitation for the number precision to be of 15 digits, since this data type supports up to 19 digits.
 
WORKAROUND:
If the range is sufficient for the requirement, the data type double can be used for the Warehouse columns; if this is not an option, using the ToNumber() function for the metric will perform the export correctly, as long as the number does not go over the limited range in Excel of 15 digits.