# Report Data Sources - data key alias removing characters and adding underscores

**URL:** <https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/report-data-sources-data-key-alias-removing-characters-and-adding-underscores/75372>\
**Category:** Ignition\
**Tags:** ignition81, perspective\
**Created:** [June 22, 2023, 12:51am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/report-data-sources-data-key-alias-removing-characters-and-adding-underscores/75372 "2023-06-22T00:51:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![r123](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@r123](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/r123)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2023, 12:51am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/report-data-sources-data-key-alias-removing-characters-and-adding-underscores/75372/1 "2023-06-22T00:51:37Z")

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This one "pdu\_current\_a" and many others are ok but the last two change.

The data key alias '1a\_2\_pdu\_current\_a1' becomes 'a\_2\_pdu\_current\_a1\_\_' in the design page Key Browser.

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**Author:** ![pturmel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/pturmel/32/3295_2.png) [@pturmel](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/pturmel)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2023, 12:55am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/report-data-sources-data-key-alias-removing-characters-and-adding-underscores/75372/2 "2023-06-22T00:55:33Z")

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Pretty sure you can't have keys that start with a digit.

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**Author:** ![r123](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@r123](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/r123)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2023, 12:58am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/report-data-sources-data-key-alias-removing-characters-and-adding-underscores/75372/3 "2023-06-22T00:58:32Z")

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That seems to be the issue. Odd way to deal with it.

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**Author:** ![pturmel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/pturmel/32/3295_2.png) [@pturmel](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/pturmel)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2023, 1:00am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/report-data-sources-data-key-alias-removing-characters-and-adding-underscores/75372/4 "2023-06-22T01:00:58Z")

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Nah. There's so many ways way identifier problems can manifest that this one seems pretty benign. It's a long-standing rule of mine that anything that is a name anywhere in Ignition gets something that can serve in python as a valid variable name.

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**Author:** ![r123](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@r123](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/r123)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2023, 1:13am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/report-data-sources-data-key-alias-removing-characters-and-adding-underscores/75372/5 "2023-06-22T01:13:51Z")

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Once you see it I guess but I don't know much about python and my memory is bad now. They could warn you if you try and start it with a number. I've learned to avoid spaces, special characters and dashes but I'm not used to having to worry about case and now leading numbers.

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**Author:** ![KathyApplebaum](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/kathyapplebaum/32/7261_2.png) [@KathyApplebaum](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/KathyApplebaum)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2023, 4:53pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/report-data-sources-data-key-alias-removing-characters-and-adding-underscores/75372/6 "2023-06-22T16:53:31Z")

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FWIW, we do have a couple of tickets to deal with this issue. I'll attach this forum thread to get them bumped up in priority a bit.