Using 'R' Analytic Functions - Does not work with MMM-YY format varchar fields

Mark.Thompson

This is not a question.  It is an observation that may help others.

I have created this analysis in my custom OBIEE system. The formula for the Trend column is: TRENDLINE("Facts"."Sales", ("Times"."Year","Time"."YYYY-MM"), 'LINEAR', 'VALUE')

Next, I simply added my "Times"."Month" column, which displays in the format MMM-YY.  Adding that column causes the Trend formula to return nothing.

I wasn't really surprised that the TRENDLINE function required columns (which, in this case, and also in Sample Sales Lite, are varchar) that could be sorted in chronological order such as YYYY-MM.  However, I was very surprised that simply adding another column to the analysis would break the TRENDLINE function.

Just thought I'd share this in case anyone else ran across the same type of problem.