Summary

Symbolic dates allow you to choose date values in a report definition rule that are relative to the current date, such as "Yesterday", rather than absolute dates such as "July 9, 2009". This adds flexibility to the report, while at the same time making it easier to use. You can use symbolic dates in both the rule form and the report itself for values of Date and DateTime properties only.

Some symbolic dates identify a single day, such as Yesterday or Tomorrow. Others define a range of dates, such as Current Month or Previous Quarter. Here is a list of all available symbolic dates:

Suggested Approach

To see how you can use symbolic dates in a report, create a report definition rule that displays all work objects created in your application. Then reference a symbolic date to restrict the range of detail in the report based on the date chosen. Repeat the process with different symbolic dates to see the effect of different date options.

1. Create a report definition rule.
2. On the Design tab, in the Columns To Include section, specify four columns to display each object's label, work ID, creation date and time, and status:

3. In the Rows To Include section, enter the following:

4. Set the range of .pxCreateDateTime using a symbolic date in the Valuefield of condition "A":
   1. Click the magnifying glass icon ( ) to the right of the Value field. The Pick Value screen appears.
   2. Select the Time Periods tab to display the available symbolic dates:
      
   3. Scroll down to find Today, select it, and click Ok.
5. Click the Run icon. The report displays only the work objects created today:

6. Edit the rule by selecting a different symbolic date value, save it, and click the Run icon again to see how the change in symbolic date value affects the report's output.