Change Text field (with numbers) DataType to Number

[Guest]

How do I change a field of text datatype to number, long int datatype, where
all the values in the text field are numbers (within the range of long int)?

I have a field that I evidentally made a text field, which contains all
integer numbers, representing the ID codes for people, in a detail table.
The people table's id is Number/Long Integer.

When I tried to change the type in my detail table, it told me that "300
records -were- deleted" and if I wanted to proceed anyway. I said no and did
not save the table and kept the text field (and MS fooled me again, and I did
not lose that data).

I then tried a query to update the text field to a new, added, Temp field of
type number, long integer, but on View it showed no data being updated.

 

[Guest]

Message to meself.
Looks like it was the "nut behind the wheel" that caused the problem.

I was trying to convert the wrong field. The field I tried was text as was
all the data and none of the data were numbers. They were all department
initials.

When I grabbed the correct field, it worked fine.