Reporting String Date to Date Issue

I ran through an example from <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://birtworld.blogspot.com/2011/02/birt-formatting-numbers-and-dates.html'>here</a>, where I'm attempting to format the string date to provide the "reporting period" in the header of a report which is easier to read. As the example showed, I added a Text Item, HTML, Dynamic Text with the following:<pre class="_prettyXprint _lang-html">Start Date: <VALUE-OF format="MMM-dd-yy">params["Start Date"].value;</VALUE-OF>End Date: <VALUE-OF format="MMM-dd-yy">params["Stop Date"].value;</VALUE-OF></pre>I have the Parameters set as a string linked to the Report Parameter "Start Date" and "Stop Date" (listed below). I have the default value for the Report Parameter "Start Date" as the following:<pre class="_prettyXprint _lang-">BirtDateTime.addDay(BirtDateTime.today(),-1)</pre>I have the default value for the Report Parameter "Stop Date" as the following:<pre class="_prettyXprint _lang-">BirtDateTime.now()</pre>The data provided when invoking a "Run" of the report for "Start Date" is:<pre class="_prettyXprint _lang-">2014-02-04 00:00:00.000-0500</pre>The data provided when invoking a "Run" of the report for "Stop Date" is:<pre class="_prettyXprint _lang-">2014-02-05 09:42:05.499</pre>When I run the report my formatted results in the header are:<pre class="_prettyXprint _lang-">Start Date: 2014-02-04 00:00:00.000-0500MMM-dd-yy End Date: 2014-02-05 09:42:05.499MMM-dd-yy</pre>While I ultimately desire having just the year, month, day, hour, and minute I thought I would try the example as is and make the appropriate modifications. I've ran through the other examples in the article linked above and the results are nearly always the same. I also tried some other examples in the forums and ran the Debugger where the only issues I see are "unnamed script", but from my searching that appears to be normal? Any advice or guidance would be appreciated! Thank you!

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fmakwsi

Have you tried SimpleDateFormat?

js69732

Thanks for the quick response. So I took the example from the previous link and changed the parameters resulting in:<pre class="_prettyXprint _lang-">var mydt1 =params["Start Date"].valuevar mydt2 =params["Stop Date"].valueimportPackage( Packages.java.text );var sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("MMM d, yyyy", reportContext.getLocale());var mydtf1 = sdf.format( mydt1 );var mydtf2 = sdf.format( mydt2 );"Start Date: " + mydtf1 + " Stop Date:" + mydtf2</pre>I then get the error:<pre class="_prettyXprint _lang-">org.eclipse.birt.report.engine.api.EngineException: A BIRT exception occurred. See next exception for more information.Wrapped java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Cannot format given Object as a Date (#5)...</pre>It seems that it does not understand that date format.

fmakwsi

actually it should work like this, your Date format looks a bit strange, but well if you need it like this i dont mind . I'll try it like this gime a sec works for me like that : <pre class="_prettyXprint _lang-js">date = journalEntry.getDate();importPackages(Packages.java.text);sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd");dateSDF = sdf.format(date);</pre>

js69732

Thanks for the response, though I'm still not having much luck. Do you happen to have an example with a String object using the initial date strings that I provided? I most recently attempted to use:<pre class="_prettyXprint _lang-">var mydt1 = Date.parse(params["Start Date"].value)var mydt2 = Date.parse(params["Stop Date"].value)importPackage(Packages.java.text);var sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("MM-dd-yyyy", reportContext.getLocale());var mydtf1 = sdf.format(mydt1);var mydtf2 = sdf.format(mydt2);"Start Date: " + mydtf1 + " Stop Date:" + mydtf2</pre>However the output from that was (Unix Epoch): :unsure:<pre class="_prettyXprint _lang-">Start Date: 12-31-1969 Stop Date:12-31-1969</pre>

fmakwsi

I'll check when i got time today

johnw

The attached report will do what you're looking for. You need separate SimpleDateFormatters for parsing and for formatting. Also, your date formats are not the sample in the StartDate and EndDate. StartDate uses a timezone, and EndDate does not. This will throw an error if the date strings do not match.

js69732

Thank you! I understand the issue, thanks for the clarity and feedback!