Format Date Values - IBM Cognos User Manual

3. In the Dimension type box, select Time.
4. Click the Time tab.
5. In the Date Level Creation dialog box, select Create standard levels
(Year/Quarter/Month) to allow Cognos Transformer to automatically specify
the required date structure.
6. In the source column list, select the column that contains values for the dates
in the dimension and click OK twice.
Cognos Transformer creates the new time dimension, adding the standard
levels Year, Quarter, and Month.
7. If you want to add a new level to the manual time dimension, drag the source
column for the time dimension from the Data Sources list to the new time
dimension.
8. Open the property sheet for the new level.
9. In the Level name box, type a name that reflects the date function you plan to
apply to this level, such as Week.
10. Click the Time tab.
11. In the Date function box, select the function to apply to this level, such as
Week and click OK.
Results
You can now change any of the following properties, which are usually set
automatically when you create the time dimension for your model:
v the Associations for the time dimension
Set this property on the Source tab of the Level property sheets.
v whether to always include all date categories, or only those for which source
values exist, when calculating relative time categories
Set this property in the Inclusion box on the General tab of the Level and
Category property sheets.
v the date function for each time level in the model, such as Year, Quarter, and
Month
Set this property on the Time tab of the Level property sheet.
v the format used for date values shown in the category viewer
Set this property on the Time tab of the Level property sheet.
v the column used to order the categories in each date level
Set this property on the Order By tab of the Level property sheet.

Format Date Values

If you prefer a date format that differs from the predefined default, you can
change the format used in the Categories diagram and resulting OLAP reports.
Procedure
1. Open the Level property sheet for the date level whose format you want to
change.
2. On the Time tab, click Modify Format.
3. If the format you want is listed in the Format codes box, select it and click OK.
4. To create a new format, edit the entry in the Code box and click OK.
For information about supported date codes, see "Date Formats and Functions"
on page 323.
Chapter 4. Structuring Your Data Into Dimensions
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