Common Situation in IDEA - Unable to View Date Field Statistics for a Date Field

Hi,

We often come across a situation where we import a file into IDEA and try to view the date field statistics for date fields within the file in IDEA. Here we encounter a blank screen in date statistics.

This situation just requires a small pre-step in IDEA prior to generating the date statistics.

Double click on any cell in the imported IDEA database. This opens the Field Manipulation screen.

Scroll down to the date field of your choice and check the field type. In all probability it will reflect the field type as character. So just click on character, change it to date and in the adjoining cell for Parameter enter the date mask exactly as the date field appears. So if the date field is 28-05-15 enter the date mask as DD-MM-YY. If the date field is 28-MAY-2015 enter the date mask as DD-MMM-YYYY

Click on OK in the Field Manipulation box and now you will be able to view the date field statistics.

You will also require to perform the above when doing an Aging, since the Aging requires one date field atleast.

This also needs to be done when you are appending a virtual numeric field to a database requiring difference in two dates and you get an error mismatch field type since one or both fields are in a character format.

There seem to be a number of reasons to fault IDEA when you encounter such issues on a daily basis.

It just requires us to understand the source of the error and apply the necessary pre-steps.

Kind Regards

Jairam