Previous month is easy, what about most recent date WITH data?

Question

As the topic suggests, I've seen many posts with the following solution for returning the last date of the previous month: TIMESTAMPADD(SQL_TSI_DAY,DAYOFMONTH(CURRENT_DATE) * -1 , TIMESTAMPADD(SQL_TSI_MONTH, 1, CURRENT_DATE)).
However, for at least the first few days of the current month, no data will be available for the previous month. How can I tell OBIEE to return the date for the most recent month where data exists?
Another part of this puzzle, is that this request needs to play nicely with query rewrite in the view. the TIMESTAMPADD doesn't seem to use query rewrite well. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

jzuzphreek wrote:
As the topic suggests, I've seen many posts with the following solution for returning the last date of the previous month: TIMESTAMPADD(SQL_TSI_DAY,DAYOFMONTH(CURRENT_DATE) * -1 , TIMESTAMPADD(SQL_TSI_MONTH, 1, CURRENT_DATE)).
However, for at least the first few days of the current month, no data will be available for the previous month. How can I tell OBIEE to return the date for the most recent month where data exists?
Another part of this puzzle, is that this request needs to play nicely with query rewrite in the view. the TIMESTAMPADD doesn't seem to use query rewrite well. Any suggestions?For what you presented, the answer is simple. However, I suspect that your need is not as simple as you described. You describe your scenario as "there are no data for the previous month for the first few days of the current month." There are two inherent assumptions which if true, makes the problem not that difficult:
1) Only the first few days of the current month, there are no data for the previous month (i.e., for the rest of the month, the data are there.)
2) Data exists for every month.
With these two assumptions, here is how you build your dashboard.
1) Create a simple report with the key data fields run with the filter for "current month."
For the "first few days" of the current month, this report will yield no records. (It doesn't matter how many days "a few days" is as you will see.) For the "rest of the month," this small report will always yield at least one record.
2) Create your main report (call this Report A) that has a filter for "previous month."
3) Place Report A on your dashboard in a Section.
4) Click on the Properties of the Section and select "Guided Navigation" and have it point to the small report you built in step 1) that will display the section "if the request returns rows."
5) Build another report (call this Report B) that has a filter for "two months ago."
6) Place Report B in a separate Section on your dashboard, below the Section in step 3).
7) Click on the Properties of this Section and again select "Guided Navigation," have it point to the small report from step 1), but this time have it display "if the request returns no rows."
So here's what happens. For the first few days of "this month," the small report will return no rows. The top Section will not display, but the bottom one will, which has as its filter "two months ago." The assumption is that by the end of each month, there will always be data. This therefore meets your criteria of displaying "the most recent month where data exists." Once data for "this month" is available, the top Section will display with the current month's filter. The bottom section will not appear until the "first few days" of the next month.
That's how you do it.