Formatting of Blank Dates in Smart Notification

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Kay Hamill
Basic Member
Posts: 8
Basic Member

    I am new to Smart Notification and am writing a query that returns a date field where some of the dates are not populated.  I am using a JDBC connection against an Oracle 10 database.

    The records with the blank dates are returned to the infoset as 1/1/1700.  I know when I run the query directly in SQLPlus, that tool returns the date as 1/1/2000, but I know that in Lawson the date is unpopulated.

    When I write the Notification, I see the 1/1/1700 populating there as well.  Is there a way that I can have these dates show up as blank in the Smart Notification?  

    Thanks!

    Matthew Nye
    Veteran Member
    Posts: 514
    Veteran Member
      Kay,

      you could use raw SQL to do this. With oracle you can try using nvl function.

      SELECT nvl(date_field,null) FROM table


      If that doesnt work Id just use a simple CASE statement

      CASE WHEN datefield = TO_DATE(1700,01,01, 'yyyy-mm-dd) THEN null ELSE datefield'
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      Jesse
      Basic Member
      Posts: 10
      Basic Member

        I agree with Matt—the best way to do this would be with SQL. However, you can write your select using a decode statement to make it a little more efficient:

        e.g. using EMPLOYEE table and term_date:
        decode(emp.term_date,'01-JAN-1700',null,emp.term_date) as term_date

        Keep in mind that Lawson always stores null dates in Oracle as Jan. 1, 1700.

        Kay Hamill
        Basic Member
        Posts: 8
        Basic Member
          Thanks for the information. I tried the Matt's suggestion, and unfortunately they did not work for me. I am will try the decode statement and let you know if that works.

          Kay Hamill
          Basic Member
          Posts: 8
          Basic Member
            I used the decode, and with some modifications was able to get it to work. It now shows up as a string and not a date in SN, but I can live with that.

            Thanks for all the help.

            Kay
            Matthew Nye
            Veteran Member
            Posts: 514
            Veteran Member
              Yeah, I was going to say, SmartNotes doesnt like blank dates. And since you repository is SQL Server, if you were to try to store Oracles version of a null date (1700-01-01) youd get errors since the smallest date that SQL Serve rcan handle is 1753-01-01. This also means you wont be able to perform any conditions on the that date field so be sure to do all that in your SQL code.
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              thummel1
              Veteran Member
              Posts: 121
              Veteran Member
                I know this is a very old post, but I have a solution that worked for us with graduation completion dates:
                CASE WHEN EMPCODES.RENEW_DATE = TO_DATE('01-01-1700 00:00:00', 'DD-MM-YYYY HH24:MI:SS') THEN null ELSE EMPCODES.RENEW_DATE END as "Test",

                This returns NULL in the SQL and appears blank in the smart notification.
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