Often, the data that you import into Analyst's Notebook contains date and time information. In general, this information can come in a range of different formats. If your data contains dates and times, your import specification must tell the application how to interpret them.
About this task
You must specify how the values in each date, time, or date & time column that you
assigned on the Assign Columns page are formatted. To provide
location context for date & time values, you must select a time zone. If you do not
specify the correct format, the application might import the data incorrectly or fail to
import the data at all.
Procedure
As soon as you assign an incoming column to a date, time, or date & time property in the design, the import wizard gains a Date & Time Format page. To set a date and time format:
- Click a column in the table at the top of the page.
As you click through each column, the
Custom format field reflects the
format of your data, along with an example. If your data contains 10 Dec 2018,
the notation in the format field is
dd MMM yyyy. If the
values in the column do not match the selected format, a yellow triangle is
displayed in the column header. A yellow triangle is also displayed next to any
values for which the format is invalid.
Note: A
valid date format might not be the correct date format
because sometimes the day and month are transposed. For example, 10 December
2018 can be expressed as 10/12/2018 or 12/10/2018. If your import data
expresses 10 December 2018 as 10/12/2018 within a column, the mm/dd/yyyy
date format is valid however October 12 2018 is incorrect. Be aware
of how the numerical expression of days and months in your import might be
interpreted.
You can change the display codes available to suit your data such as removing
the leading zero in single digit days, hours and months. You can switch to a 12
hour clock format, a two digit year and have longer day and month names if
required. Click the relevant checkbox beneath the Custom
format field. If you want to include words in your column data,
you can use quotation marks to differentiate the text. For example, if the value
in your column is Date 10/12/2018, the notation in the Custom
format field should be "Date"
dd/MM/yyyy.
Note: If you think you have the correct format but the
yellow triangle still appears, check the values in your date and time
columns for extra characters such as spaces. You can remove unwanted
characters by using Trim Characters on the
Column Actions page.
-
Change the time zone of the source data, unless you want your import to default
to the same time zone as the chart.
If you are working with Analyst's Notebook Premium, and have set new Date
and time only custom properties, you can select time zones on the
Date & Time Format page. You can have a number of
columns that contain date and time properties, therefore you can set different
time zones for each if required. If your columns are date only or
time only, the time zone drop-down option is unavailable.
-
If you set custom types with date and time, or date, or time properties in your
import design, you can enable copying to timeline charts on the Date
& Time Format page. This function is available for custom
types only. The charting scheme sets the item date and time for you when you use
types specified in your i2 Analyze aligned schema.
-
If you are working with a classic import specification, the Date
& Time Format page displays a Make the first item
controlling when multiple items have the same date & time
option. This is useful if you want to chart a timeline for presentation
purposes, and have events that occur at the same time. Click the checkbox to
select the option.
Results
Date and time properties in the import design can now receive values from the incoming data correctly.
