Creating report based on user selected Date Range

Question

Hello.
I am trying to display an Apex report that selects data for the report based on a user entered date range.
It's a simple page with two date picker fields (p18_start and p18_end).
The report region SQL looks like this:
SELECT *
FROM prj_items
WHERE LM_DT BETWEEN :p18_start AND :P18_end
One table, one field on the table to search and two Apex variables.
I thought this would be fairly simple, but I am obviously missing something.
I not even sure what other information is needed to help me figure this out.
-Jody

Answer 1

Hi,
You can set defaults for the datepickers if you need to - this could be done in a computation on the page for each item and conditional on the item being null.
When I've done something similar to this, I've created two hidden page items - eg, :P19_FIRST_DATE and :P19_LAST_DATE and populated these with the earliest/latest date that the user could reasonably select (perhaps, in your case, the MIN(LM_DT) and MAX(LM_DT) values).
Then your SQL would be:
select * from PRJ_ITEMS
where LM_DT BETWEEN TO_DATE(NVL(:P19_START,:P19_FIRST_DATE), 'DD-MON-YY')
AND TO_DATE(NVL(:P19_END,:P19_LAST_DATE), 'DD-MON-YY')If you don't want to set default dates, you could do something like:
SELECT * FROM PRJ_ITEMS
WHERE (:P19_START IS NULL AND :P19_END IS NULL)
OR (:P19_START IS NOT NULL AND :P19_END IS NULL AND LM_DT >= TO_DATE(:P19_START,'DD-MON-YY'))
OR (:P19_START IS NULL AND :P19_END IS NOT NULL AND LM_DT <= TO_DATE(:P19_END,'DD-MON-YY'))
OR (LM_DT BETWEEN TO_DATE(:P19_START,'DD-MON-YY') AND TO_DATE(:P19_END,'DD-MON-YY'))There are various reasons why your two dates are being cleared when the page is reloaded. Firstly, you should check the branch that returns to the same page - make sure you are not clearing the cache for the page. Then, have a look to see if there is a "reset page" process (usually created for you when you create a form page). Then, check the Source settings for the items. Typically, these would be "Only when current value in session state is null" and a Source Type of "Static Assignment" with the "Source Value or Expression" left empty.
Andy