I have a requirement where depending on the parameter selected the table field should be displayed as text or date. For eg, if the user selects a true, the OriginDate field which is a datetime type should be displayed as a date in the report else should be displayed as a text. I tried creating a formula an doing something like below, and then placing the formula in the details section of the report but it doesnt work due to different datatypes returned.
if {?Mailmerge}=true then
ToText({Travel.OriginDatetime}, "M/d/yy")
else
{Travel.OriginDatetime}
Is there a way I can accompalish the above requirement so that I do not end up creating 2 reports one with field displayed as text and other as date?
Try creating a formula that returns your field as a string totext({Travel.OriginDateTime},"M/d/yy") and overlay it with the original field {Travel.OriginDateTime} and conditionally suppress them based on the value of {?MailMerge} such that only one shows in any one instance of the report.
If I'm following you, you want to only show M/d/yy when ?MailMerge is true, otherwise yuo want to show the full date?
You can't show different datatypes in the same formula, so just convert them both parts of the conditional statement into strings:
if {?Mailmerge}=true then
ToText({Travel.OriginDatetime}, "M/d/yy") // 8/30/12
else
ToText({Travel.OriginDatetime}, "M/d/yy hh:mm:ss") // 8/30/12 02:06:00
I don't know what exactly your dates look like in the database, but you can use the above as a guideline into formatting your date based on the ?MailMerge parameter.
Related
I would think this is relatively straight forward but cant find documentation on how to do it(or the correct syntax to use) and my messing around hasn't worked so far.
For Dates we have a custom format called Month /Day /Year. This pulls back a the date(as a date type) in date format as such:
"14 April 2003"
The code behind this is:
(DATEPART('year', [Close Date])*10000 + DATEPART('month', [Close Date])*100 + DATEPART('day', [Close Date]))
What I want to get back is the month is numeric format like:
"14.04.2003"
Is it simply changing the "month" part in the code to a different type? Has any one come across this?
Cheers
lampbob, I'd just use date formatting which will mean you will still be able to use all the date-fields flexibility that Tableau provides.
Select Custom format with the following input:
dd.mm.yyyy
See the screen below for more details:
This can be easily achieved using the 'Format' option in Tableau. Here are the steps to follow to format the date field as you have specified.
Add Date field to your Rows/Columns field on a Tableau worksheet.
Set the format of the Date to be DAY(Date).
Click on options for 'DAY(Date)' and go to 'Format...'
On the Format DAY(Date) panel, go to Scale -> Dates.
Select 'Custom' option and type in 'mm.dd.yyyy'. Now the date will be in the string format you need.
Screenshots:
String format for date,
Changing to 'DAY' and 'Format...'
If you are only concerned about how the date is presented, then leave the datatype as a date, and use a custom format string via the format pane to display it as desired.
Followed your advice and just had to change the date pill, in the column field, to a continuous value. Then right clicked -> format -> Scale -> custom. Then used the above suggested format setting. Thanks Petr, woodhead92.
I've run into a problem and haven't been able to find a solution for this via Google.
Using Google Sheets, I have a series of dates in the DD/MM/YYYY format in a column, and I'm filtering them based on info in another column with this formula in column G:
=ARRAYFORMULA(FILTER(D:D, B:B=B2))
where the dates are in column D. For example, 5/20/2013.
This works fine, but next, I want to add a string to the front of the dates like so:
=ARRAYFORMULA("End: "&FILTER(D:D, B:B=B2))
The dates are converting into numbers. So 5/20/2013 becomes End: 41414 instead of End: 5/20/2013, which is what I need.
Further, this happens whenever I try to reference a cell with a date in it in any formula. I have another column that puts together some values from other columns like this:
=IF(B:B=B2,ARRAYFORMULA(F2&" "&E2),"")
I want to add the date to that, like so:
=IF(B:B=B2,ARRAYFORMULA(F2&" "&E2&" "&G2),"")
The result I'm getting is the same, where I should see 5/20/2013 I'm instead getting 41414.
Can anyone tell me what's going on and how I can prevent it from converting my dates to numbers like that? Thanks!
In addition to Chris' answer: just converting to text should also work:
=ARRAYFORMULA("End: "&FILTER(to_text(D:D), B:B=B2))
You can format the formula output using TEXT, for example:
=ARRAYFORMULA("End: "&FILTER(TEXT(D:D,"mm/dd/yyyy"), B:B=B2))
=IF(B:B=B2,ARRAYFORMULA(F2&" "&E2&" "&TEXT(G2,"mm/dd/yyyy")),"")
I have designed a report to pull data fields based on a record selection formula that uses a "like" operator that looks for a substring match in a particular field's data, as so:
{rct.serno} like "*9842*"
(due to the free-format way data is stored in the given field, I have to do a substring match to find the relevant rows in the DB.)
This works fine. Instead of manually editing the record selection formula every time, though, I thought to use a Parameter field ("{?TagNum}") to prompt the user for the desired string, and then use that in the record selection formula like:
{rct.serno} like "*{?TagNum}*"
Crystal does not throw an error when I save this record selection formula, but it does not return any records after the report is refreshed, and a parameter value is entered. How can I properly use the parameter value in a record selection substring match?
You're really close to the solution. You can modify the formula in the Select Expert. Just click the Select Expert icon (or from the Report menu). Then click the Formula Editor button. Concatenate or add an asterisk onto the beginning and end of the parameter using the + operator, like this:
{Customers.LastName} like "*" + {?pLastName} + "*"
Let me know if that helps.
~ Nathan
What formula do I use to change the field format for Age so that it looks like (String) data?
Here are some choices:
Put your field on the report. Format your field and under Display String, use cstr(currentfieldvalue). (FYI: the currentfieldvalue is actually a function).
Make a new formula. Use cstr({tablename}.{fieldname}).
Basically I have a field in my table called sex, and it's a boolean. true for male, false for female. How can I display it this way instead of as 0, 1?
You want to create a formula field and add the formula field to the report instead of the sex field. Something like this should work (my syntax may be slightly off)
if {MyTable.sex} = 1
then
"male"
else
"female"
If you are unfamiliar with formula fields they are just expressions you can use and display in the report. In the 'Field Explorer' side bar in Crystal Reports you can see list of all the Database Fields etc. Just right click on the Formula Fields and add a new one. After you create the formula field you drag it onto your report layout just like any other normal field.
Use a formula field. Put, say, #Sex into your report, then edit it to be something like:
//may need tweaked....
If {database.table.sex} then
male
else
female;
My Crystal formula syntax is really rusty, so that may not be right as written. It might need to be :
//may need tweaked....
Stringvar displaySex;
If {database.table.sex} then
displaySex = "male"
else
displaySex = "female";
displaySex
And the line-end (";") format might not be right....
If you right-click on the original database field and choose "Format Field...", you can set the Display String on the Common tab using one of the formulas above, instead of creating a separate formula to do the calculation.