diff --git a/python/obitools3/dms/view/view.pyx b/python/obitools3/dms/view/view.pyx
index 7f12093..9b0980d 100755
--- a/python/obitools3/dms/view/view.pyx
+++ b/python/obitools3/dms/view/view.pyx
@@ -27,7 +27,8 @@ from obitools3.utils cimport tobytes, \
                              tostr, \
                              bytes2str_object, \
                              str2bytes_object, \
-                             clean_empty_values_from_object
+                             clean_empty_values_from_object, \
+                             get_obitype
    
 from ..object cimport OBIDeactivatedInstanceError
 
@@ -262,6 +263,7 @@ cdef class View(OBIWrapper) :
 
 
     # TODO warning, not multithreading compliant
+    # TODO there is a bug when rewriting a partial line with None values
     cpdef Column rewrite_column_with_diff_attributes(self,
                                                      object    column_name,
                                                      obitype_t new_data_type=<obitype_t>OBI_VOID,
@@ -719,25 +721,8 @@ cdef class Line :
             if value is None :
                 return # TODO discuss. This means that columns aren't created until an identifiable type is found
                 #raise RollbackException("Trying to create a column from a None value (can't guess type)", self)
-            value_type = type(value)
-            if value_type == int :
-                value_obitype = OBI_INT
-            elif value_type == float :
-                value_obitype = OBI_FLOAT
-            elif value_type == bool :
-                value_obitype = OBI_BOOL           
-            elif value_type == str or value_type == bytes :
-                if value_type == str :
-                    value_b = str2bytes(value)
-                else :
-                    value_b = value
-                if is_a_DNA_seq(value_b) :
-                    value_obitype = OBI_SEQ
-                elif len(value) == 1 :
-                    value_obitype = OBI_CHAR
-                elif (len(value) > 1) :
-                    value_obitype = OBI_STR
-            else :
+            value_obitype = get_obitype(value)
+            if value_obitype == OBI_VOID :
                 raise CantGuessTypeException(value)
                 #raise RollbackException("Could not guess the type of a value to create a new column", self._view)