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Date in External Data Package appearing as zero in reports

Troubleshooting


Problem

An External Data Package created in Reporting with date data does not show the dates when it is used in reports.  Instead it shows zeros (0) in the column.

Cause

An external data package is created in Reporting by selecting Manage External Data on the package and selecting a Microsoft Excel file (*.xls or *.xlsx), a tab-delimited text file (*.txt), a comma-separated file (*.csv) or an XML file (*.xml).
Working with your external data:  See section Manage External Data tool
https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/cognos-analytics/11.1.0?topic=reporting-working-your-external-data

The date in the file used for the external data has the format dd-mmm-yyyy.  This is not the correct date format for an External data file.

Resolving The Problem

The required date format for an External data file is yyyy-mm-dd.
Preparing to work with your external data: See section Working with Date Data:
https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/cognos-analytics/11.1.0?topic=data-preparing-work-your-external
Reformat the date to use the required date format yyyy-mm-dd in the External data file and recreate the External Data package.

Document Location

Worldwide

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Document Information

Modified date:
14 April 2022

UID

ibm16572277

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