Tableau Output Tool Problem

[adnbbh]

Hi everybody, 

I've got a question concerning the Tableau Output Tool; I've encountered a problem where I can't output multiple streams locally if there are any Date/DateTime fields included (see screenshot). Basically as soon as I change the field type to string it works without a problem. I've tried numerous things but nothing worked and I'm wondering if this is a bug or am I doing something wrong?

Thanks in advance!

Best regards,

Adnan

[Goldrickd]

Hey Adnan,

Tableau should be able to handle Date/DateTime data. Can you provide a screenshot of the metadata of the incoming fields (specifically WE-Datum)?

[Podoseb0]

What does your data look like on that column he's having problems with? Are you selecting any primary columns in the "Spatial" section of the tool? I noticed that kind of error when adding primary columns there.

[adnbbh]

Thanks for the quick reply folks, here's a screenshot of the metadata for the date fields:

As for the "Spatial" section, that I didn't touch, i.e. nothing is selected there.

[Podoseb0 · Accepted solution]

My guess is he doesn't like some values in that field, not the fact that it's a Date field per se.

Does it work if you filter out any empty() values from the WE-Datum field?

If not, try also assigning to that field a date via a formula tool (so the generic DateTimeToday() function), just to check if the problem is in the values or not.

[diptangsu · Accepted solution]

Can you post a screenshot of a part of the data? There are empty values in the column. It says, Got an invalid value ''.

'' is an empty string, and the tool can't convert that into a valid datetime object since there's no logical default value for a datetime object. Current datetime is not really a very good idea.

Remove the empty values or replace them with valid datetime values and you should be good to go.

[adnbbh]

Hey everybody,

sorry for a bit of a late reply, it was a busy week-

The empty field was exactly the problem it seems; when I remove the empty fields or fill them out with some generic dates, the output seems to be working fine.. This, however, doesn't really solve the problem as I want to have date fields for certain rows empty or Null, as this often is the case in tables and data sets. I do think this is something that should be addressed in the near future concerning this tool.

[Podoseb0]

It's still a bit weird, because when I try to output to an hyper file using the Tableau Output tool, if my Date field has some null values it works anyway.

So your problem is more linked to those empty values that shouldn't even be allowed in a Date field.

You could try 2 things:

• Replace any value that isn't a date with Null() in your field.
• Alternatively, just before the output insert a Select tool to convert your date to string and then a second Select to re-convert from string to date (this way any non-date value will automatically be converted to Null() ).

Let me know if it works.

[jordantuck20]

Any resolutions to this? 

I am having the same error, but I am even having it when adding a field using DateTimeNow() in a formula tool. Every row has the exact same value, so there should be no issues or nulls. 

[ericwagner]

I was having a similar issue as jordantuck20. I was able to get the tool to work by using a date instead of a datetime field.