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Unable to search for locale-specific formatted date in an Excel file whose text is extracted by using Outside-In version 8.5.5 or earlier on Linux

Troubleshooting


Problem

Unable to search for locale-specific formatted date in an Excel file whose text is extracted by using Outside-In version 8.5.5 or earlier on Linux.

Symptom

Steps to reproduce:

1.  On a Content Platform Engine (CPE) Linux system, add an Excel document with a locale-based date value in Brazilian format dd/mm/yyyy (for example 24/2/2006) and index it.  Locale-specific date values are date formats that start with an * in Microsoft excel.
2.  Try to search for the document with ACCE.

1st query with the Brazil date time format:
SELECT d.This FROM Document d INNER JOIN ContentSearch c ON d.This = c.QueriedObject WHERE CONTAINS(d.*,'24/2')
Result: No document was retrieved
2nd query with the US date time format:
SELECT d.This FROM Document d INNER JOIN ContentSearch c ON d.This = c.QueriedObject WHERE CONTAINS(d.*,'2/24')
Result: One document retrieved.
On Linux systems, locale-based date formats are extracted incorrectly. 
On Windows systems, locale-based date formats are extracted correctly.
Note: Non-locale based date formats (also known as fixed date formats) are extracted correctly.  Such data formats are not marked with an * in Microsoft Excel.

Cause

The Outside-In parsing library for Linux is not extracting the local-specific formatted date in the Excel file.  Instead, it returns the date as formatted mm/dd/yyyy, which is then later indexed by Content Search Services (CSS). Thus, a search for the locale-specific date format fails while a search for the American date format succeeds.

Environment

On Linux systems, locale-based date formats are extracted incorrectly. 
On Windows systems, locale-based date formats are extracted correctly.
Note: Non-locale based date formats (also known as fixed date formats) are extracted correctly.  Fixed date formats are not marked with an * in Microsoft Excel.

Resolving The Problem

APAR PJ44426 is tracking the request for a fix from the Outside-In vendor.

Document Location

Worldwide

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Document Information

Modified date:
28 December 2021

UID

ibm16537286