As of December 1, 2020, Focal Point is retired and repurposed as a reference repository. We value the wealth of knowledge that's been shared here over the years. You'll continue to have access to this treasure trove of knowledge, for search purposes only.
Join the TIBCO Community TIBCO Community is a collaborative space for users to share knowledge and support one another in making the best use of TIBCO products and services. There are several TIBCO WebFOCUS resources in the community.
From the Home page, select Predict: WebFOCUS to view articles, questions, and trending articles.
Select Products from the top navigation bar, scroll, and then select the TIBCO WebFOCUS product page to view product overview, articles, and discussions.
Request access to the private WebFOCUS User Group (login required) to network with fellow members.
Former myibi community members should have received an email on 8/3/22 to activate their user accounts to join the community. Check your Spam folder for the email. Please get in touch with us at community@tibco.com for further assistance. Reference the community FAQ to learn more about the community.
The underlying database we are using (Oracle) uses 01/01/0001 as a default date. When we pass this date to Excel it shows up as an overflow cell because its number value is negative 695000 (more or less). We do not want to convert the date to alpha because a subsequent Excel sort will not preserve chronological order. Any ideas?
WebFOCUS 7.6.2 AIX Output: HTML, AHTML, Excel, and PDF
Posts: 18 | Location: Omaha, NE | Registered: November 04, 2007
How about just converting it to the base date of your epoch. if you're unix, i believe its january 1 1970. if you're windows, i believe its january 1 1900; those dates will convert nicely to focus smart dates with non-negative values. Does that work for you, Dennis?
In Focus since 1979///7706m/5 ;wintel 2008/64;OAM security; Oracle db, ///MRE/BID
Posts: 3811 | Location: Manhattan | Registered: October 28, 2003
Thanks to Susannah and Leah for responding. Unfortunately we do not have the option to change the default dates in our data store (for a number of reasons). Leah, I'm not sure what you mean by setting the date to 0. The field format in the data store is HYYMDS, which we display as HMDYY to preserve chronological sorting. So 0 itself is not a valid value. Maybe I'm missing something simple here.
WebFOCUS 7.6.2 AIX Output: HTML, AHTML, Excel, and PDF
Posts: 18 | Location: Omaha, NE | Registered: November 04, 2007
Thanks again for the responses. I see that "0" means the SmartDate "0". Unfortunately, the users of our data are accustomed to seeing the 0001/01/01 date as the default in the operational system generating our reporting data. We fear that showing 1900/01/01 in our reports will be confusing to our users. It looks like we may not have an option.
WebFOCUS 7.6.2 AIX Output: HTML, AHTML, Excel, and PDF
Posts: 18 | Location: Omaha, NE | Registered: November 04, 2007
Why not use NULL or missing? Will that sort as per your requirements within Eggshell?
Scratch that as Eggshell has the wonderful base date (just like WF ) but the base date for Eggshell is 01/01/1900 whereas WF has 31/12/1900 (just place 31/12/1899 in a cell and try and format as dd/mm/yyyy!). The reason WF uses 31/12/1900 is to avoid the confusion over 29/02/1900 not being a valid date - place 60 in an eggshell cell and convert to date - MS are wrong and openly admit that fact on their support site. Despite what some folks believe, 1900 was not a leap year.
If you use null or missing then sorting ascending or descending always places the null dates at the bottom of the heap.
If converting to alpha is not an option then I think the "no option" is right.
Confused users? Isn't that a normal state? Have you run the idea past them?
TThis message has been edited. Last edited by: Tony A,
In FOCUS since 1986
WebFOCUS Server 8.2.01M, thru 8.2.07 on Windows Svr 2008 R2
WebFOCUS App Studio 8.2.06 standalone on Windows 10
Posts: 5694 | Location: United Kingdom | Registered: April 08, 2004