Column level type conversion in Mapping section of Copy Activity in Azure Data Factory.

Question

Column level type conversion in Mapping section of Copy Activity in Azure Data Factory.

BadMan 0

Earlier, I used to get the option to change type conversion settings of a particular datetime column in mapping section of a copy data activity.

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Here my source is Azure SQL DB and Destination is Azure blob storage.

Now, If I am changing my source to Fabric warehouse, I can see the type conversion settings but that I don't have the option to change it for individual column mapping.
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I have tried applying the same type conversion settings of those particular columns in JSON code, but still it was not reflecting on Mapping section.
So, I wanted to if there is any workaround for my requirement

Smaran Thoomu 33,920 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-03-12T06:03:49.7533333+00:00

@BadMan Following up to see if the below answer was helpful. If this answers your query, do click Accept Answer and Yes for was this answer helpful. And, if you have any further query do let us know.

1 answer

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Smaran Thoomu 33,920 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-03-12T06:03:49.7533333+00:00

@BadMan Following up to see if the below answer was helpful. If this answers your query, do click Accept Answer and Yes for was this answer helpful. And, if you have any further query do let us know.

Answer 1

Hi ,

Thanks for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A.

This behaviour is a current limitation in ADF Copy Activity when the source is a Fabric Warehouse.

Earlier, with Azure SQL db as source, ADF allowed column-level type conversion settings in the Mapping tab (for example DateTime format per column). When the source is Fabric Warehouse, the connector currently exposes type conversion only at the activity level, not at the individual column mapping level, so the UI does not show those options even if you add them manually in JSON.

Workarounds:

Handle formatting in the source query (recommended) Use a query in the source dataset and convert the column explicitly:
```
   SELECT 
       CONVERT(VARCHAR(19), ModifiedOn, 120) AS ModifiedOn,
       CONVERT(VARCHAR(19), ExtractDate, 120) AS ExtractDate
   FROM table
    
```
This forces the format before Copy Activity reads it.
Use a Data Flow instead of Copy Activity In Mapping Data Flow you can use Derived Column + toString()/toTimestamp() for precise column-level formatting.
Use staging with SQL transformation Land data into a staging table/file, then run a transformation step to control datetime format.

Bottom line: Per-column type conversion in the Mapping UI is not supported yet for Fabric Warehouse sources in Copy Activity, so the practical workaround is formatting in the source SQL query or using Data Flow transformations.

Please 'Upvote'(Thumbs-up) and 'Accept' as answer if the reply was helpful. This will be benefitting other community members who face the same issue.

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Column level type conversion in Mapping section of Copy Activity in Azure Data Factory.

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