Char to Date conversion problem - again!

Question

Hi,
in order to make date selection 'more attractive' for end users I have been tasked with presenting a text field with 'January 2010', 'February 2010' etc to the end users for their prompts.
So far so easy...
However, I then need to use the values to derive either dates, or years, or date numbers.
This all works fine during development when I am testing using a default parameter thus; -
'@{MYMONTHYEAR}{September 2010}' - which is fed into various very complex functions.
BUT - when I try to use the report in conjunction with the parameter I get; -
'The evaluation of the index 6 expression on row count -1 failed. [nQSError: 46046] Datetime value 2010/09/01 does not match the specifiied format'
However, cast('2010/09/01' as date) works fine... and convoluted as the logic of my functions is, the fundamental char to date conversion is exactly in this format.
Anyone shed any light on this, give me a guaranteed way to handle char to date conversion?
thanks,
Robert.

Answer 1

Hi,
I tried your workaround case when 1=2... but I still get the same error....
Not when I have the format from my default value, but when I get the value from a dashboard prompt in a page.
The full error is; -
Error Codes: OPR4ONWY:U9IM8TAC:OI2DL65P
State: HY000. Code: 10058. [NQODBC] [SQL_STATE: HY000] [nQSError: 10058] A general error has occurred. [nQSError: 43113] Message returned from OBIS. [nQSError: 46046] Datetime value 2012/09/01 does not match the specified format. (HY000)
SQL Issued: SELECT s_0, s_1, s_2, s_3, s_4, s_5, s_6, s_7, s_8, s_9, s_10, s_11, s_12, s_13, s_14, s_15, s_16, s_17, s_18, s_19, s_20, s_21, s_22, s_23, s_24, s_25, s_26, s_27, s_28, s_29, s_30, s_31, s_32, s_33, s_34, s_35, s_36, s_37, s_38, s_39, s_40, s_41, s_42, s_43, s_44, s_45, s_46, s_47, s_48, s_49, s_50, s_51, s_52, s_53, s_54, s_55, s_56, s_57 FROM ( SELECT 0 s_0, "Vivaldi Detail"."Product Global Hierarchy"."Tobacco Category Groups" s_1, "Vivaldi Detail"."Product Global Hierarchy"."Tobacco Category" s_2, "Vivaldi Detail"."Product Global Hierarchy"."Total Tobacco Products" s_3, FILTER("Vivaldi Detail"."Fact Sales Detail"."SOM %" USING ("Vivaldi Detail"."Time"."Year" =cast((cast(right('September 2012',4) as integer)-1) as char(4)))) s_4, FILTER("Vivaldi Detail"."Fact Sales Detail"."SOM %" USING ("Vivaldi Detail"."Time"."Year" =cast((cast(right('September 2012',4) as integer)-2) as char(4)))) s_5, FILTER("Vivaldi Detail"."Fact Sales Detail"."SOM %" USING ("Vivaldi Detail"."Time"."Year" =cast((cast(right('September 2012',4) as integer)-3) as char(4)))) s_6, FILTER(FILTER("Vivaldi Detail"."Fact Sales Detail"."SOM %" USING ("Vivaldi Detail"."Time"."Year" =cast((cast(right('September 2012',4) as integer)-1) as char))) USING "Vivaldi Detail"."Time"."Month Number" <=month(CASE WHEN 1=2 THEN CURRENT_DATE ELSE cast(right('September 2012',4)||'/'||CASE left('September 2012',LOCATE(' ','September 2012')-1) WHEN 'January' THEN '01/01' WHEN 'February' then '02/01' when 'March' then '03/01' when 'April' then '04/01' when 'May' then '05/01' when 'June' then '06/01' when 'July' then '07/01' when 'August' then '08/01' when 'September' then '09/01' when 'October' then '10/01' when 'November' then '11/01' ELSE '12/01' END as date)END)) s_7, FILTER(FILTER("Vivaldi Detail"."Fact Sales Detail"."SOM %" USING ("Vivaldi Detail"."Time"."Year" =right('September 2012',4))) USING "Vivaldi Detail"."Time"."Month Number" <=month(CASE WHEN 1=2 THEN CURRENT_DATE ELSE cast(right('September 2012',4)||'/'||CASE left('September 2012',LOCATE(' ','September 2012')-1) WHEN 'January' THEN '01/01' WHEN 'February' then '02/01' when A brief sample of a typical formula which causes this is; -
FILTER(FILTER(FILTER("Fact Sales Detail"."SOM %" USING ("Time"."Year" =   right('@{MYEAR}{September 2010}',4))) USING ("Time"."Month Number" = 2)) USING "Time"."Month Number" <= month(CASE WHEN 1=2 THEN CURRENT_DATE ELSE cast(right('@{MYEAR}{September 2010}',4)||'/'||CASE left('@{MYEAR}{September 2010}',  LOCATE(' ','@{MYEAR}{September 2010}') -1) WHEN 'January' THEN '01/01'  WHEN 'February' then '02/01' when 'March' then '03/01' when 'April' then '04/01' when 'May' then '05/01' when 'June' then '06/01' when 'July' then '07/01' when 'August' then '08/01' when 'September' then '09/01' when 'October' then '10/01' when 'November' then '11/01' ELSE '12/01' END as date)  END    ))The September 2010 default being EXACTLY what is selected from the dashboard prompt when testing. It does not error, but returns no data in isolation, but when when from the prompt it errors...
And the date format, if fed into a cast ('2012/09/01' as date) does not error.
Anyone help - this is really driving me mad, syntax is good - it should work!!!
thanks,
Robert.