Data types

Define the kind of data a field holds.

A field’s data type specifies the kind of values the field can contain and determines how that field’s data appears in your reports, as well as which operations are allowed for the field and which are not allowed. For example, you can’t apply an arithmetic function to a Text type field, or use a Number type field as the date range dimension in a report.

The following table shows the supported field types, along with the kind of data expected as input, and examples of how that data might look in your reports.

TypeExpected dataReport examples
NumberA floating point number.1,234.56
PercentA floating point number representing a ratio.61.73%
DurationAn integer representing a length of time in seconds. This will be formatted into a standard time display (with hours, minutes, and seconds) in reports.01:43:19
CurrencyA floating point number representing a monetary value. This will be formatted to include the appropriate currency symbol in reports. Changing the currency type doesn’t convert to the new type. It simply applies the specified currency symbol to the metric value.$1,234.56173.9 €¥30,093
TextZero or more letters, numbers, characters, or symbols.A1B2C3
Date & TimeAn actual calendar date, a calendar date with time, or an abstract date or time index. This will be formatted according to the locale. Learn more about dates and times in Looker Studio.2020-09-212020-09-21 12:35 PMQ4 2020Week 1
BooleanA logical value. If the dataset doesn’t provide Boolean values, you can create a Boolean data type field by using a calculated field with a CASE statement:CASE WHEN ... THEN TRUE ELSE FALSE ENDLearn more about CASE statements.truefalse
GeoA value representing a geographic region, such as a country name, latitude and longitude, ISO code, or Google Ads criteria ID.Learn more about visualizing geographic data.United Kingdom51.5074,-0.12781006886
URLAn address of a World Wide Web page.https://lookerstudio.google.com/
HyperlinkA clickable link to a URL. Hyperlink fields are created by the HYPERLINK function.See an example of Hyperlink fields
ImageAn image. Image fields are created by the IMAGE function.A Tyrannosaur stands in a primeval forest holding a computer tablet displaying data visualizations.
Image LinkA clickable image. Image Link fields are created by the HYPERLINK function.See an example of Image Link fields

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