9/8/2014 How to calculate the number of days in a month in WebIntelligence | Business Objects Blog

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How to calculate the number of days in a month
in WebIntelligence
March 12, 2012 weldblog
A quick method of determining the number of days in a month in WebIntelligence is through the
use of the LastDayOfMonth function.
For a specified date, the LastDayOfMonth will give you the last day in that month.
=LastDayOfMonth(CurrentDate())
To extract the number of days, we want to use the first two digits of this result. The following
formula will acheive that:
=Left(FormatDate(LastDayOfMonth(CurrentDate());dd/MM/yyyy);2)
Weve added two functions here. The first is FormatDate. LastDayOfMonth returns a value held
as a date field. We ultimately want the first two digits of this field. However, using the Left()
function means we have to have a string input, not a date input. We have to convert the input into
a string format first.
This requires two steps.
The first is to convert the LastDayOfMonth value into a string. We do this using the FormatDate
function:
=FormatDate(LastDayOfMonth(CurrentDate());dd/MM/yyyy)
We now have a string.
We then extract the first two digits to give us the number of days in a month:
=Left(FormatDate(LastDayOfMonth(CurrentDate());dd/MM/yyyy);2)
If we want to subsequently use this in a calculation, we need to further manipulate this value and
convert it to a number. This is achieved using the ToNumber function:
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number ToNumber(string number_string)
This takes a string value and converts it to a number.
In our case, we create the following formula:
=ToNumber(Left(FormatDate(LastDayOfMonth(CurrentDate());dd/MM/yyyy);2))
We now have the number of days for a particular month that we can use in our calculations.
Missing FirstDayOfMonth() function
Sadly, there isnt a function to determine the first day of the month. However, we have a method
of extracting the last day of the month using LastDayOfMonth() and using the formulas
described above, we can work out the first day:
=RelativeDate(LastDayOfMonth(CurrentDate());-
ToNumber(Left(FormatDate(LastDayOfMonth(CurrentDate()) ;dd/MM/yyyy);2))+1)
Despite looking complex, we are subtracting the number of days in the month (plus one) from the
last day of the month. If we subtracted the total number of days in the month, we would end up
with the last day of the previous month! We dont want this. So we add a 1 to give us the first day.
Also note that in order to subtract days, we have prefixed the ToNumber function with a minus
symbol.
Update:
Hat tip to JB for pointing out that we can avoid the string conversion by using the
DayNumberOfMonth function.
Hence, to calculate the last day of the month:
=DayNumberOfMonth(LastDayOfMonth(CurrentDate()))
And the first day of the month:
=DayNumberOfMonth(RelativeDate(CurrentDate(); 1-DayNumberOfMonth(CurrentDate())))
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Posted in BusinessObjects, Web Intelligence, WebIntelligence. Tags: FormatDate,
LastDayOfMonth, Left, ToNumber, WebIntelligence. 13 Comments
13 Responses to How to calculate the number of days in a
month in WebIntelligence
jerimiahbaldwin Says:
March 21, 2012 at 4:01 pm
Couldnt you also use the following to avoid converting to a string and parsing:
NumberOfDaysInMonthOfObject
=DayNumberOfMonth(LastDayOfMonth([Action Time]))
or
NumberOfDaysInMonthOfCurrentDate
=DayNumberOfMonth(LastDayOfMonth(CurrentDate()))
Similarly, FirstDayOfMonth
=RelativeDate([Action Time]; 1-DayNumberOfMonth([Action Time]))
or
=RelativeDate([Action Time]; 1-DayNumberOfMonth(CurrentDate()))
Reply
weldblog Says:
March 26, 2012 at 1:01 pm
Jermimiah
Thanks for your comment, and you are right! I completely overlooked the
DayNumberOfMonth function.
This will make things a bit simpler for our readers.
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9/8/2014 How to calculate the number of days in a month in WebIntelligence | Business Objects Blog
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I will update the post.
Reply
jerimiahbaldwin Says:
March 26, 2012 at 2:23 pm
This is a terrific blog!
weldblog Says:
March 27, 2012 at 8:27 am
Thank you for your kind words.
midyx Says:
April 23, 2012 at 9:33 am
nice posting. i have a question. how i can get LastDayOfMonth from period example: MAR
2012
Reply
weldblog Says:
April 23, 2012 at 10:36 am
Hamidy
You can use:
=LastDayOfMonth(ToDate(MAR 2012;MMM yyyy))
The last part tells Web Intelligence the date format of the string you are passing in.
Reply
pavani Says:
September 23, 2013 at 5:57 pm
hi how can we get firstday of month given MMM yyyy format i.e MAR 2013 similar
to LastDayof Month shown in posts
weldblog Says:
October 1, 2013 at 11:55 am
There isnt a FirstDayOfMonth function that I am aware of.
However, I did write an article which described a workaround:
hep Says:
July 19, 2012 at 3:54 pm
This is great, ive also been hunting around for a calculation of work days in a month? Also,
is there a way to calculate the number of workdays between any two dates?
Reply
weldblog Says:
July 20, 2012 at 11:59 am
Hep
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Hep
Thanks for your feedback.
Working days in a month is slightly more tricky as you may need to take into account local
holidays, etc. This varies from country to country.
They may be a way around this by using the MOD function. I will try to work an example
and include here.
Reply
hep Says:
July 20, 2012 at 3:44 pm
Thats a good point. I think working days, not accounting for holidays is probably all
that could be calculated without using calendars. Not sure how to hook in custom
calendars to the calculation anyway.
Shashi Says:
August 2, 2012 at 5:11 am
Hello,
Really a very nice post
I have requirement, where in need to calculated turn time between 2 dates i.e. Start Date End
Date
The catch is if End Date is Sunday than the Time calcuation should be till Saturday.
Eg.
Start Date 12-JUL-2012 00:09:25
End Date 15-JUL-2012 22:08:35
As 15-JUL-2012 is Sunday, while calculation I should take till 14-JUL-2012 24:00
I have used below formula to minus one day if the End Date is Sunday
=If(DayNumberOfWeek([End Date])=7) Then RelativeDate([End Date];-1)
However the date/time which is get is 14-JUL-2012 22:08:35
How can make this to 14-JUL-2012 24:00. I want it in date format to use it in calculation
Reply
Joel de Souza Says:
December 13, 2013 at 4:41 pm
Great Post!!! Helped me a lot. Thanks,
Reply
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