Need to simplify Data Types to simpler/less common .NET types

[CESARDELATORRE]

In the dynamic API we have too many and not .NET "standard types" you need to use when creating the file columns schema for loading data. The list of types is not very "dotnetty":

This is what you see in intellisense:

For instance for text you have Text, TX, and TXT, many types not very clear like R4, etc.

We need to have a simpler and more standard list of data types.

[Zruty0]

Do you have a suggestion in mind @CESARDELATORRE ?

[CESARDELATORRE]

Maybe something like the following:

    public enum ValueTypes : byte
    {
	//...
	Float = 9,
        String = 11,
        Bool = 12,
        TimeSpan = 13,
        DateTime = 14,
        TimeZoneInfo = 15,
	//etc.
    }

The closer it can be to data types in C#, the better:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/tour-of-csharp/types-and-variables

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.timezoneinfo?view=netframework-4.7.2

[Zruty0]

I think mapping to .NET types is positive. In the past, we chose to have 2-character descriptions of our types, but I was never a big fan. Maybe @TomFinley was? He was the creator of UG after all :)

The one type I am suspicious about is String (since we use ROM<char>). Maybe Text is OK in that particular case?

[GalOshri]

This looks good to me. What purpose do the current granular types play after the work done in #673?

[Zruty0]

We will still have most of the list: I1..I8, U1..U16, R4, R8, TX, TS, DT, BL, it is a matter of renaming and removing duplicates. And I'm not sure if we currently keep DZ.

[CESARDELATORRE]

Sound good! Thank you guys! 👍

[jwood803]

Is there currently a way to map these to their respective .NET types?

I mainly ask since quite a few examples use the context.Data.TextReader and set the columns with the new TextLoader.Column where the DataKind gets passed in. I also ask in case this is something I can possibly help with. 😄