What it does
Select is four jobs in one tool: choose which fields continue, rename them, reorder them, and change their data types.
It is usually the second tool in any workflow, right after Input — deselect what you do not need early and everything downstream is faster and easier to read.
Data types
| Type | Use for |
|---|---|
V_String | Variable-length text — the sensible default |
String | Fixed length, padded |
Int32 / Int64 | Whole numbers |
Double | Decimals |
Fixed Decimal | Money — exact, no floating-point drift |
Date / DateTime | Dates |
Bool | True/false |
Changing a V_String from 255 to 50 does not warn you — anything longer is simply cut off, and you find out later when a name looks wrong. Check the warnings tab after any type change.
Fixed Decimal for money
Use Fixed Decimal for currency, not Double. Floating point cannot represent many decimal fractions exactly, and over thousands of rows the error accumulates until totals stop reconciling.
Set the size as precision and scale — 19.2 gives 19 digits with 2 after the point.
Renaming
Rename here rather than downstream. A field renamed in Select carries that name through the rest of the workflow, so formulas and joins read clearly.
The Dynamic Select tool does the same by rule — select all numeric fields, or all fields matching a pattern — which is what you need when incoming columns vary.