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Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2023-06-23
Convert Dataset Text Fields to Date Fields

Convert Dataset Text Fields to Date Fields

  • Dataset must have a field containing date data.
  • Any of these security requirements:
    • Prism Datasets: Manage
       domain in the Prism Analytics functional area.
    • Dataset Editor
       permission on the dataset.
    • Dataset Owner
       permission on the dataset.
When you create a dataset using external data, the data might contain date or time information. When you create a dataset, Workday reads the data to determine which field type to assign to each field. If Workday recognizes the format of a date field, it automatically assigns the Date field type. However, Workday only recognizes some date formats. If Workday doesn't recognize a date format, then it assigns the Text field type to the field.
If Workday doesn't recognize a date field format, you can create a Prism calculated field to convert the Text field type to a Date field type.
  1. Access the
    Edit Dataset Transformations
     task for a dataset.
  2. Select a dataset pipeline (required for derived datasets) and stage into which to add the Prism calculated field.
  3. Add a new field.
  4. In the expression editor for this new field, enter an expression that uses the TO_DATE function.
    When you enter the expression using the TO_DATE function, make sure that you use the Text field you want to convert and the date format that best matches the values in that Text field. To quickly enter a field name, type a left square bracket ( [ ).
    Suppose that you have a field called
    start_date
     that contains data that looks like
    25-May-2017
    . Use this expression:
    TO_DATE([start_date], "dd-MMM-yyyy")
  5. In the inspector panel, enter a name. Field names must follow name validation rules.
  6. Save the Prism calculated field by clicking
    Enter
     on your keyboard.
    Clicking another field on the page also saves the changes to the Prism calculated field.
Prism creates a new field and populates it by converting the data to the Date field type.