I would like to create a yes/no column in Business Objects (Boxi).
I have a job start date and a job end date data columns.
If a person is in work then the new column should say yes.
If they have a start and finish, it suggests, they are not in work.
I can just add two columns and physically look to see if there is an end date. But I don't want the two columns in my report.
I just want ind_name and in_work
I use Webi and am not familiar with Boxi. But you should be able to reference objects without needing to display them in your report. I'd use IsNull.
=If(IsNull([FinishDate]) And Not(IsNull([StartDate]))) Then "In work" Else "Not in work"
If your object isn't technically null, your workaround would be the Length or IsDate formula, depending on whether your dates are in date or string formula.
=if(Length([StartDate])>1) AND Length([EndDate])<=1 Then "In work" Else "Not in work"
=If(IsDate([StartDate])) And Not(IsDate([EndDate])) Then 1
If you don't need to check for a start date you could cut your formula down even shorter.
=if(IsNull([FinishDate]) Then "In work" Else "Not in work"
Related
Ok this should be a relatively easy thing to do, yet I'm at the head desk stage trying to figure out the insanity here.
I have a table called tblPersonnel. I'm tracking two document expiration dates in date/time fields called CED and PPED. When I run a query against tblPersonnel I need it to look at PPED, determine if that document is expired and if so use CED instead. I have a few fields in the query that need to use this concept to determine what the output value is, but I am hitting a wall here trying to get the query to spit out the correct value. Here's what I'm using for one of the fields - Document Expiration Date: IIf([PPED]-Now()<0,[CED],[PPED]). What's happening is that the expression is constantly popping as false, so PPED is getting used regardless if it's an expired date or not. Does anyone have any ideas as to what I'm doing wrong here?
I've also tried to set this up as its own field in tblPersonnel, but that's even more aggravating. If I try to set the field to just a text field - IIf([PPED]-Now()<0,"Yes","No"), the formula will accept the use of Now(), but it doesn't like the reference to the other fields in the table. If I set it as a calcuated column, I can reference the other fields but it doesn't like Now(). I'm at a loss here.
If PPED is less than Date(), it is expired. Don't need to subtract. Assuming CED and PPED are just date parts, no time, consider:
IIf([PPED] < Date(), [CED], [PPED])
If PPED could be null:
IIf(Nz([PPED],0) < Date(), [CED], [PPED])
Ok finally fixed it here. I had another issue in that I wasn't accounting for how Access would handle a Null or blank value in PPED. The functioning formula is Document Expiration Date: IIf(Len([PPED])>0,IIf([PPED]<Date(),[CED],[PPED]),[CED]) Thanks to June7 for helping me simplify the expression, as I was using DateDiff('d',[PPED],Date())<0 but their answer is just so much cleaner and quicker to type.
I actually have two questions.
I'm a beginner user of Access, still trying to get a good understanding of the software. I'm trying to create a database for a library (School project) with a borrowing out system. I have two fields in a table called DueDate and DateHired. The DueDate functions on the expression =Now()+28 and the DateHired function on the expression =Now(). Basically making the due date 4 weeks ahead of when the book was hired. My first question is quite simple; if I were to input a record today, would the two DueDate/DateHired fields remain the same date and time by tomorrow? Or would they update to the Now() of tomorrow?
My second question is something regarding an expression. I'm trying to make an Overdue checkbox. The premise is that if Now()>DateDue then the Checkbox will be 'Yes'. My current code in the ControlSource part is this:
=CBool([DateDue]
However, the checkbox simply displays '#Error' and not Yes/No. I'm also concerned that if the answer to the first question was '=Now() stays the same after the record is added and doesn't update' that would also mean the Overdue function would not really work unless you were inputting the record after the due date. Which would make no sense. Any suggestions?
Cheers.
This is relation to your second question. You can ask a separate question for the first part.
=CBool([DateDue]
What you are trying to do here, is convert a Date data type to a Boolean (you're missing the closing parentheses by the way) which is impossible.
What you should be doing is check if the due date is less than today and return the appropriate True/False value.
IIf([DueDate] < Date(), True, False)
Which means:
IIf("Is due date in the past?", "Yes, it's overdue", "No, it's not overdue")
You can read more about the IIf function here.
Indeed as a beginner, make it a habit to use the date functions. Later you can turn to "smarter" methods which, by the way, often aren't that smart.
1.
If you store a date, it remains unchanged in the table. And don't use Now unless you specifically need the hours too:
DateDue = DateAdd("d", 28, DateHired)
or in a query - using the designer:
DateDue: DateAdd("d",28,[DateHired])
or as a ControlSource for a textbox on your form:
=DateAdd("d",28,[DateHired])
2.
You can use DateDiff for this:
Due = DateDiff("d", DateHired, Date) > 28
or in a query - using the designer:
Due: DateDiff("d",[DateHired],Date()) > 28
or as a ControlSource for a textbox on your form:
=DateDiff("d",[DateHired],Date()) > 28
and set the Format property of the textbox to, say, Yes/No or something else meaningful for your users.
I've got a report outputting to an Excel file, with some fields in a database being empty.
I'm trying to filter these null values out using the following Iif expression in a cell:
=Iif(
IsNothing(Fields!START_DATETIME.Value),
0,
Fields!START_DATETIME.Value
)
This doesn't work, I get "#VALUE" in the cells where the data was null, and the time value of the cell where there was data.
If I use the same expression without an expression as the third parameter:
=Iif(
IsNothing(Fields!START_DATETIME.Value),
0,
1
)
I get 1s where there is a date in the table and 0s where there is nothing.
I'm sorry if this is a duplicate, I couldn't find anything that worked for me...
Edit:
I'm using VisualStudio Professional 2013
Update
What I've got for each entry in the database is: a datetime for authorization time, another for start time and another for stopped time. There is always an entry for authorization time, but not always for start and stopped.
I've split the date and time out from the various datetimes into columns like so:
Authorized date
Authorized time
Start time
Stop time
The idea is that if no start and stop time are present, just use the authorized time
The following expressions are put in the Start time column. Sorry, I don't have enough rep to post images or more than 2 links. I've put program output in this album:
http://imgur.com/a/zJSAY
Doing:
=Iif(Fields!START_DATETIME.Value is Nothing,
DateAdd(DateInterval.Day,693594,TimeValue(Fields!AUTH_DATETIME.Value)),
DateAdd(DateInterval.Day,693594,TimeValue(Fields!AUTH_DATETIME.Value))
)
Outputs the authorized time, so that works fine.
However, doing:
=Iif(Fields!START_DATETIME.Value is Nothing,
DateAdd(DateInterval.Day,693594,TimeValue(Fields!AUTH_DATETIME.Value)),
DateAdd(DateInterval.Day,693594,TimeValue(Fields!START_DATETIME.Value))
)
Outputs the start time where there is an entry, and #VALUE! (null or some such) when there isn't anything.
And doing:
=Iif(Fields!START_DATETIME.Value is Nothing,
DateAdd(DateInterval.Day,693594,TimeValue(Fields!START_DATETIME.Value)),
DateAdd(DateInterval.Day,693594,TimeValue(Fields!AUTH_DATETIME.Value))
)
Outputs the authorized time where there is an entry in start time, and #VALUE! when there isn't anything.
I can't figure this out. I understand (1) and (3), but what I need is for (2) to display the correct start time while there is one, and the authorized time when there isn't.
Update 2
It turns out that Iif() evaluates each conditions even if it is not selected, and any error encountered is passed on regardless. See comments to Why isn't my iif statement evaluating true when the condition is correct?
To fix this I did:
=DateAdd(
DateInterval.Day,
693594,
TimeValue(
Iif(
Fields!START_DATETIME.Value is Nothing,
Fields!AUTH_DATETIME.Value,
Fields!START_DATETIME.Value
)
)
)
This seems to work for me, and should have been the common sense way to do this in the first place...
Thanks again for your help guys.
Excel will guess the type of a column based on the first few cells. If there's typical DATETIME values in those, it'll guess the column is a date column, and it will error with "#VALUE! on values that don't match the type, such as "0".
You should ask yourself what you want to display in Excel for NULL values:
If you just want an empty cell, don't use an expression at all. Just Fields!START_DATETIME.Value will render a NULL value as an empty cell.
If you want a "baseline" datetime, make sure to use that instead of "0". Easiest is probably in your query with something like ISNULL(START_DATETIME, GETDATE()).
If you really want a "0", make sure it appears in one of the first few cells by ordering. Excel will see the "0" and not set the column type to date/time.
I always thought that when a stored procedure brought back a null datetime that an SSRS report would show mindate in that cell. The thing is, in my experience this is not always true. I can't figure out why. Sometimes a report will show blank and sometimes mindate for a null datetime. Why is that?
Is there rules or documentation (that makes sense) that explains how this works? It's hard to be consistent when the tools you are using are not consistent. I can make two reports that are set up exactly the same way. One will show mindate and one will show blank for null datetimes. I don't get it.
EDIT:
First of all, yes the mindate thing has happened to many.
https://www.google.com/search?num=50&q=ssrs+null+date+show+blank&oq=ssrs+null+date+show+blank&gs_l=serp.3...8759.9774.0.9941.10.10.0.0.0.0.152.888.8j2.10.0....0...1c.1.25.serp..8.2.166.kl2WBVx4Ijw
Almost every result has someone talking about the mindate when they want a blank. Many of the results are from Stack Overflow so before you start telling me it never happens, realize you are flat wrong. You may have never seen it. I have never seen a severed finger in my food in all my years of eating and thousands of meals. Doesn't mean it hasn't happened to someone.....
Example of one that is showing min date:
In the report the expression for the text box is:
=Fields!SecondaryInjuryRecordDate.Value
The number formatting was set to Date->01/31/2000 in the placeholder properties window.
Pretty straightforward, nothing weird going on there. RIGHT?
In the proc, the code for that column is:
CASE WHEN ISNULL(l.SecondaryInjury, 0) = 0 THEN '' ELSE l.SecondaryInjuryDXDate END AS SecondaryInjuryRecordDate
That resulted in mindate being shown whenever SecondaryInjuryDXDate was null. I had to switch to this:
CASE WHEN ISNULL(l.SecondaryInjury, 0) = 0 THEN '' ELSE ISNULL(l.SecondaryInjuryDXDate, '') END AS SecondaryInjuryRecordDate
...to get blanks when the date was null.
SecondaryInjuryDXDate is a DATETIME and
SecondaryInjury is a bit.
Within SSRS, by default a NULL DateTime value will be represented as an empty string instead.
If data formatting is applied to the value, a MIN DateTime value will be used in place of the null value e.g.: converting the DateTime to a ShortDate as described:
The number formatting was set to Date->01/31/2000 in the placeholder properties window. Pretty straightforward, nothing weird going on there. RIGHT?
To avoid this, the column value must be wrapped in an expression to conditionally apply the required formatting:
=IIf(IsNothing(Fields!DateTimeField.Value), "", FormatDateTime(Fields!DateTimeField.Value, DateFormat.ShortDate))
Use something like this in textbox expression:
=IIf(IsNothing(Fields!DateTime.Value), "", Fields!DateTime.Value)
It looks like there is no documentation to be found about this. The next best thing is to have this Q&A document things based on our collective experience.
Supposing the question: "What does SSRS do when displaying a DATETIME with a NULL value?"...
...the answer is it will display an empty string instead. There is no reproducible scenario where a NULL value would be displayed as anything else, unless you do some work to that end yourself, for example:
If the query COALESCEs the NULL to something else, e.g. the string "NULL" or a MIN DATETIME;
If you have an expression for the textbox value, e.g. IIF(Fields!MyDateTime.Value Is Nothing, "01-01-1900", Fields!MyDateTime.Value)
Every field returned in a SQL query gets a datatype assigned. Generally, you want to keep dates returned as dates from SQL, not as strings. (Don't format the date to a string in SQL. Do that as close to the presentation layer as possible.)
So instead of this in your query:
CASE WHEN ISNULL(l.SecondaryInjury, 0) = 0 THEN '' ELSE l.SecondaryInjuryDXDate END AS SecondaryInjuryRecordDate
I would try to use:
CASE WHEN ISNULL(l.SecondaryInjury, 0) = 0 THEN CAST( NULL AS DateTime ) ELSE l.SecondaryInjuryDXDate END AS SecondaryInjuryRecordDate
See SQL cast datetime for an explanation of why you are getting 0 cast to a date.
I did find when I format an entire column such as FormatDateTime(field, DateFormat.ShortDate) - SSRS will format that blank field to 01/01/0001. Just an FYI.
close to 3 months into powerbuilder classic 12.5 and sql server 2008 and am working out well. I am creating a car hire system using car registration_number as the primary key.
i need to capture the car's details and make sure that the registration_number is not available. The code here is not working but that of the capacity works out...
What is wrong with the code? please give another way that works.
if i dont click on the column 'capacity' and click on save, the program goes on and saves the record even when it is an empty field. how to i avoid that.
String car_registration_number
car_registration_number = dw_newvehicle.GetItemString( Row, "registration_number" )
long error_code = 0
string column
column = dwo.name
choose case column
case "registration_number"
if data = car_registration_number THEN
messagebox("validation error", "You cannot available regno")
error_code = 1
end if
case "capacity"
if integer(data) >10 then
messagebox("validation error", "a car's capacity cannot be more than 10...")
error_code = 1
end if
end choose
return error_code
Instead of GetItemString at the top, you would need to do one or two finds in the DataWindow for the registration number in data. If the first find returns 0 you are OK. If it returns the current row, you need to search from row to the last row unless you are on the last row, which you may well be if you are inserting. However, I wouldn't do it that way because it won't work in a multi-user environment. Instead, you should go ahead and insert the row and then if you get a duplicate key error, tell the user the registration number is already in the system. If the user is going to enter a lot of data you could try to SELECT the registration number from the database when the user enters it, but you still have to be able to handle the duplicate key error.
I don't understand what kind of check you are doing here for registration_number : you are getting the current value of the column in the DW into car_registration_number then you are comparing to the value that was modified (the code comes from the itemchanged event ?). Do you expect to enter a value that is different from the current one ?
Also beware of the GetItemString if the type of the column is not a text (as it is called ..._number) as PB may crash, return some null value or silently fail (depending on the PB mood of the moment ;). If you get a null value, your if check will always fail.
If you want to get numerical values, use GetItemNumber instead.
you can set the capacity column to be not null in you database. When saving the DW, you will get an error telling that there is some required value that was not set.
A better idea would be to iterate in the UpdateStart event on the columns that are member of the table primary key and to check if they are set or not.
To write some dynamic code, you can get at runtime the columns from the DW by describing the datawindow.column.count then checking the pk members with #1.key (replace #1 by #2, #3, ...) if the check must be done on that column.