I am trying to add a single date as a published parameter to my FME workspace and write this to a column in a MapInfo TAB format output table. I set the parameter to "20140131" and set the value of the Date field in my output table to this parameter. But the field in my output table is changed to a character type. How can I fix this so the field remains a date?
Thanks.
Have you passed the parameter via the DateFormatter?
Thanks for the reply.
Yes, I have - I've tried a few different cominations (e.g %Y%m%d) for 'Source Date Format:' and 'Destination Date Format:' without any success.
What is the date format used in MapInfo?
date
This is used to store and retrieve date information within a Geodatabase.
When a date field is read by the Geodatabase reader, it is placed in the FME feature with the form HHMMSS, YYYYMMDD, or YYYYMMDDHHMMSS. The time portion is specified using the 24-hour clock. When writing, the date attribute must also be in one of these three forms. These forms are compatible with all other FME dates.
When the Geodatabase writer creates a new table, all the fields, except for the object ID field, will be defined as allowing null values.
Yes, the writer field is set to the 'Date' type in the eMITAB] (MapInfo) writer.
This somehow is converted to a character type in the output table.
Although FME treats dates as character strings while translating, the Writer will convert date strings (typically "yyyyMMdd" format) to date values automatically when writing them into Date type field of destination dataset, as far as I know.
How did you confirm that the values which have been written into the Date type field were still character strings?
Takashi
This is raw contents of a "tab" file which I wrote with the FME MAPINFO writer. I specified "date" as type of "NewField" when writing, it looks to be distinguished clearly from other Char type fields. How's your "tab"?
-----
!table
!version 300
!charset WindowsJapanese
Definition Table
Type NATIVE Charset "WindowsJapanese"
Fields 6
N03_001 Char (10) ;
N03_002 Char (20) ;
N03_003 Char (20) ;
N03_004 Char (20) ;
N03_007 Char (5) ;
NewField Date ;
-----
AsAt Char (8) ;
the writer in the 'User Attributes' section has:
AsAt Date
It might be better that you contact Safe support with attaching the data and workspace in which the issue can be reproduced.
Thanks all.
I think I have found the problem. It appears to be an issue with the 'MITAB' writer. Those familiar will know that there are 2 MapInfo writers - MITAB (open source) and MFAL or just MAPINFO as it now appears in FME2014. The issue only occurs with the MITAB writer.