# Msg.payload to number for InfluxDB for Grafana
**URL:** https://discourse.nodered.org/t/msg-payload-to-number-for-influxdb-for-grafana/43164
**Category:** General
**Created:** [25 March 2021 06:23 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/msg-payload-to-number-for-influxdb-for-grafana/43164 "2021-03-25T06:23:49Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@kelvins](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/kelvins)
#### Post date: [25 March 2021 06:23 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/msg-payload-to-number-for-influxdb-for-grafana/43164/1 "2021-03-25T06:23:49Z")
Hi all, I am struggling to convert the msg.payload to be used as a number when writing to InfluxDB.
I currently send data to MQTT and my payload/content is just numbers, example 65
and under the 'change node' I have set msg.payload defaults.
It writes to InfluxDB well, however, when reading the data from Grafana, it requires it to be a number for more details.
Is there something I need to define in the 'change node'? Thanks in advance!
---
### Author:  [@mtoko](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/mtoko)
#### Post date: [25 March 2021 08:25 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/msg-payload-to-number-for-influxdb-for-grafana/43164/2 "2021-03-25T08:25:06Z")
When I use InfluxDB the node is expecting an object. If there is no timestamp in the object it uses the time that the message was sent
Example function in function node
```auto
msg.payload = {
name: "Temp1",
DegC: msg.payload,
};
return msg;
```
---
### Author:  [@Simon01011](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Simon01011)
#### Post date: [25 March 2021 08:30 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/msg-payload-to-number-for-influxdb-for-grafana/43164/3 "2021-03-25T08:30:01Z")
Welcome kelvins!
I did a test flow some time ago, looks like this:
It queries the network interface and writes the bytes transmitted and received in a InfluxDB. I use version 2.0
The function for rx looks like:
```auto
var stdout = msg.payload;
var regex_rx = /\s*RX packets\s*\d*\s*bytes\s*(\d*)/;
const m_rx = stdout.match(regex_rx);
msg.payload = Number(m_rx[1]);
return msg;
```
This payload is then sent to the database.
The configuration of the Influx node is
---
### Author:  [@Colin](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Colin)
#### Post date: [25 March 2021 10:20 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/msg-payload-to-number-for-influxdb-for-grafana/43164/4 "2021-03-25T10:20:14Z")
Feed the message from the MQTT node into a debug node and post what it shows.
If it is just a number but as a string, so for example the debug may show msg.payload as String "12.3" then if in the MQTT node you tell it to output a Parsed JSON object then it will parse that string and convert it to a number. Then the debug node should show it as a number.
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### Author:  [@kelvins](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/kelvins)
#### Post date: [25 March 2021 13:55 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/msg-payload-to-number-for-influxdb-for-grafana/43164/5 "2021-03-25T13:55:05Z")
Thank you for your input!
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### Author:  [@kelvins](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/kelvins)
#### Post date: [25 March 2021 13:55 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/msg-payload-to-number-for-influxdb-for-grafana/43164/6 "2021-03-25T13:55:44Z")
Thank you for your input and clear example!
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### Author:  [@kelvins](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/kelvins)
#### Post date: [25 March 2021 13:56 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/msg-payload-to-number-for-influxdb-for-grafana/43164/7 "2021-03-25T13:56:14Z")
Colin! This was it! Thank you so much! This worked for me!!
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### Author:  [@Colin](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Colin)
#### Post date: [25 March 2021 13:58 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/msg-payload-to-number-for-influxdb-for-grafana/43164/8 "2021-03-25T13:58:13Z")
Excellent. It works because a string containing a number is valid JSON, so the node parses it and converts it into a javascript object, which in this case is just a number.
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### Author:  [@system](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [8 April 2021 13:59 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/msg-payload-to-number-for-influxdb-for-grafana/43164/9 "2021-04-08T13:59:12Z")
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