Can't Filter List with number, could I change it to "Single line of text"?

[jaironjunior]

Hey there Guys, needing some help, currently we have a list and the employees that work on it have to manually look for the value on a specific column in a Sharepoint List, on a different column is possible to filter through a Search box for names and stuff like that, but the problematic column called "Protocols" only has numbers, as I've searched seems is not possible to add a search box there right?

What I've seen is that if I could change the column type from "Number" to "Single line of text" it would allow me to use the Search box, but i'm kind of afraid it will messup the values on it, and I can't afford to lose that much data :(

Any suggestions? 

Here's the example:

[#2]

@jaironjunior 

How many list items you have in this SharePoint list? Do you have plain numbers in the column or you also have numbers with decimal and % in the column?

I did a test related to this and it worked for me for different number formats. Here are the results:

Number column with data before changing the column type: 

Column and values after changing the column type to "Single line of text": 

I will suggest you to do similar tests in your development site (for testing list) before doing it in production/live list.

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[#3]

Hey there @ganeshsanap , i've checked and it seems it has 1757 items.

That specific column they are asking me for is only normal numbers, not decimal or %.

How could I copy it in order to test it on a development site for example?

I did not find any "Duplicate" option, or copy, I've seen that is possible to create a new list using the patterns of the old one, but It copies only the columns, not the data in it.

If I could backup that list somehow so I wouldn't get any trouble after changing would be awesome.

Also is there any risk that the "Screen" where is filled the data, not work after changing the column type? Here's a screenshot of how it is now

[#4 · Accepted solution]

@jaironjunior 

1. Currently there is no SharePoint out of the box way available to duplicate the existing list including the list items. You will have to use simple Power Automate flow or PowerShell or PnP Provisioning to copy data from one list to another OR you can try changing column type by manually creating 10-15 items in the new list.
2. I did test by changing the column type from number to "single line of text" and all SharePoint default list forms (where you fill/update the data) are working properly without any issue.

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[#5]

I did the change on the production list, it worked.

But the Heart rate after changing was almost killing me hahahaha.

Thanks!