title: How to specify field data type when reading from a SQL database
body: <p>I have a SQL table called "Customers".  In it is a CustomerNumber field with values like "0001234567", i.e. they are made up of numbers only, but some include leading 0s.  So, when I try to run something like</p>
  
  <pre><code>sqlFetch(channel=myconn, sqtable="Customers", stringsAsFactors=FALSE)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>it returns my customers table where the CustomerNumber field is numeric (instead of character), and consequently I lose all those leading 0s.</p>
  
  <p>Is there a way I can specify the fieldtype for a column or an alternative solution that won't truncate all my leading 0s?</p>