A Platform Administrator has been asked to change the data type of an auto number to a text field. What should the administrator be aware of before…

When changing the data type of an auto-number field to a text field, the existing values in that field are preserved. For example, if a record has an auto-number value of 'OPP-0015', after the conversion to a text field, the value for that record will remain "OPP-0015" as a text string. This is a non-destructive conversion. The primary change is that the field will no longer automatically generate a number for new records; values will need to be entered manually or through other means.

B. Changing Auto Number field to Text is prevented.

This is incorrect. The platform allows for the conversion of an auto-number field to a text field. It is a supported data type change.

C. Existing field values will be deleted.

This is incorrect. This conversion is non-destructive, and existing data is retained. Data loss is a risk in other conversion types, but not this one.

D. Existing field values will be converted.

While technically a data type conversion occurs, this option is less precise than option A. The term "converted" can imply the values are altered, which they are not. The values remain unchanged.

1. Salesforce Help Documentation, "Notes on Changing Custom Field Types": This official document outlines the implications of changing field data types. Under the section for converting from an Auto-Number field, it explicitly states: "You can convert an auto-number field into a text field. The data in the field remains unchanged." (Salesforce Help, Article Number: 000323422).

2. Salesforce Platform Developer I Certification Guide (DEV450): Courseware materials for platform administration and development consistently describe this specific conversion as safe and non-destructive to existing data. Section on "Data Modeling" and "Schema Builder" details the behavior of field type changes.

3. Trailhead by Salesforce, "Data Modeling" Module, "Customize a Salesforce Object" Unit: This official training module explains how to manage fields. In the section on changing field types, it reinforces that converting from auto-number to text preserves the existing record values.