Field Value Expression Problem

[Tracy]

Hello,

I have an untyped data source (and no I can change it) where all my columns are strings. I have a "date" column which I would like to format specifically so I am trying to convert the field value to a date using the following:

=IIf(Fields.MinDate='', 'blank string', CDate(Fields.MinDate))

The problem is that the one record I have with a blank string as a value is erroring out on the CDate conversion, which it shouldn't because it evaluates to "true".

If I use:

=IIf(Fields.MinDate='', 'blank string', Fields.MinDate)

then the record does display 'blank string'  so I know that it is evaluating to "true" for that record.

Any ideas on how I can convert this string field to a date so I can apply special formatting (without having to write a user function)?

Thank you.

[Steve]

Hello Tracy,

The experienced behavior is correct and by design. IIF() is a function and you need to prepare the parameters prior to executing the function as most of the programming languages work.

That's why the reporting engine first evaluates the parameters and then passes the result values to the function. What you can do is nest another IIF function inside the CDate e.g.:

=IIf(Fields.MinDate='', 'blank string', CDate(IIF(Fields.MinDate='', Now(), Fields.MinDate))

Kind regards,
Steve
the Telerik team

[Tracy]

Thanks for the response.

I wasn't thinking of it as a function -- more of a regular IF statement in .NET.

Thanks,

Tracy